Launched on January 16, 2016, by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Startup India programme aims to support India’s startup ecosystem with multiple benefits around patent filing, funding, tax exemption, winding up, public procurement and more. As of May 17, 13.6 lakh startups were recognised under Startup India with 3,845 startups funded so far.
To register, startups should be operational for not over 10 years and incorporated as a private limited company or a registered partnership firm or a limited liability partnership. Moreover, the annual turnover should not exceed Rs 100 crore for any of the financial years since its incorporation. Here’s the latest process to register a company under the Startup India programme by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT):
- Visit the government’s National Single Window System — nsws.gov.in and sign up through the Login button on the top right of the page
- Select the entity type — Incorporated Company/Limited Liability Partnership/Sole Proprietor/Others and click on ‘Next’
- Enter the company PAN details and validate it. Click on ‘Next’
- Enter the registered address of the business and click on ‘Next’
- You will have to next verify your PAN using Digital Signature Certificate (DSC). Click on ‘Proceed to Verify’
- Validate the details pre-filled on the screen and additional details sought
- Add the Digital Signature Certificate and click on ‘Register DSC’
- ‘DSC Verification Successful’ message will come on the page
- Click on ‘My Dashboard’ on the left side of the page
- Click on ‘Apply on’ to ‘Register as a Startup’
- The application form for registering your startup will open
- Enter relevant details such as logo, information about your startup, website, your industry, sector, address, details of company representative such as director and his/her details
- Further enter the total employees in the company, whether applied for trademark, nature of startup, whether startup is innovative, whether startup is creating scalable business, whether it has received any funding
- You will also have to write a note on how the startup is innovative, what problem it is solving, the uniqueness of your solution, how it generates revenue
- Under ‘Self Certification’, you may enter Certificate of Incorporation and Authorisation Letter
- Accept all the terms and conditions and acknowledgements and click on ‘Save Draft’ and then on ‘Review & Submit’
- Review the form filled and check the bottom at the bottom to confirm the information shared is correct and click on ‘Submit Application’
- On Submission, your application status on the dashboard will show ‘Submitted’
- The approval may take up to a week’s time
- Once approved, you can click on ‘Download’ to download your ‘Certificate of Recognition’ with DPIIT number