 "e commerce, online firms")
The government on Friday assured that the new e-commerce policy, which is under the process of formulation, will be "good and sound".
Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) Secretary Guruprasad Mohapatra said there are issues such as data, brick and mortar stores and e-commerce firms and about a level-playing field for them.
"We are working on a new policy which is more comprehensive... But I can assure that the policy that will be made, will be good and sound policy," he said here at the Indian Economic Summit.
He said that when the Government of India makes a policy, it has to listen to each and every stakeholder in the country.
The secretary added that when a policy has ramifications not only across India but also on Asian and global investors who like to come to India, the government would have to engage with all stakeholders.
Different countries have different approach towards dealing with data issues and "when a government as a whole decides to do something, it has to engage with a large number of stakeholders and that is what is happening now," Mohapatra said.
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The government in February released the draft national e-commerce policy proposing setting up a legal and technological framework for restrictions on cross-border data flow and also laid out conditions for businesses regarding collection or processing of sensitive data locally and storing it abroad.
Several foreign e-commerce firms have raised concerns over some points in the draft pertaining to data.
Replying about regulatory issues being faced by start-ups, he said, "The more we keep them away from regulations, the more we allow them to operate within the space they want to operate, I think it is better in long run for start-ups."
And with this attitude, the government is working to improve ecosystem for budding entrepreneurs, he said.
Further, he said that at the moment, over 50,000 start-ups are registered with the DPIIT and "we expect to reach another 50,000 by 2024".
Talking about the Rs 10,000-crore Funds of Fund, he said over 300 cases have been cleared by the SIDBI.
While the DPIIT is the monitoring agency, Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) is the operating agency for this fund.
"We have recent discussions with SIDBI and we have told that in this year's Budget and in the next year's Budget, we want to increase the fund available to SIDBI to intervene and we are also trying to bring some other channels along with SIDBI to do this activity," the secretary said.
Under the 'Start-up India Action Plan', the government announced incentives, including tax holiday and inspector raj-free regime, besides capital gains tax exemption and a Rs 10,000-crore corpus to fund them.
"We want to create an ecosystem that every start-up in India feels proud to come up and we want to make it pan-India rather than being concentrated in metros," he said.
When asked about failures in start-ups, Mohapatra expressed his view as an individual that there should be a system which is not branding them and instead providing equal access to facilities that any other successful start-up has.
"That is the kind of ecosystem we should try to do as far as failures are concerned," he added.
