Union Budget 2019: New TV channel, 100 incubators and 75,000 entrepreneurs – are part of the government's budget boost for Indian startups

• During the Union Budget 2019, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that an exclusive television channel will be set up for Indian startups.
• This channel will discuss promotion and growth of startups, along with funding and tax planning.
• The Minister also said that 80 livelihood business incubators and 20 technology business incubators in 2019-2020 to encourage and develop 75,000 social entrepreneurs in India.

In the Union Budget 2019, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced a television channel for startups alone.

A new exclusive television programme for startups within the current television bouquet of channels will be built for startups. This channel will work as a platform for promoting startups, discussing their growth as well as funding and tax planning. This will be run by startups themselves.

The Finance Minister further said that the Startup India scheme has seen thousands of entrepreneurs, including founders from Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes. The minister said that they have been assisted to set up their businesses and seeing the strong demand of the Startup India scheme, the scheme will now continue from 2020-2025.

The Minister also said that 80 livelihood business incubators and 20 technology business incubators in 2019-2020 to encourage and develop 75,000 social entrepreneurs in India.

India’s ruling party Bharatiya Janata Party when it had released its election manifesto had promised to build a ‘New India of 130 crore dreams” and had also made way for a new Seed Startup Fund of ₹200 billion. The government’s earlier fund of funds ₹10,000 crore fund was said to be released in two tranches until 2025.

During the Interim budget, the then Finance Minister Piyush Goyal had mentioned that special benefits and incentives were given to small businesses and start-ups while also simplifying overall compliance processes.

The government had mentioned Digital India as one of its initiatives for Vision 2030, covering artificial intelligence and robotics.