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‘Start-up India initiative to be launched soon’
New Delhi: The Start-up India, Stand up India initiative announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be launched shortly, a senior official said on Wednesday.
Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) secretary Amitabh Kant said at an event here that various government departments were working together to easen the compliance procedures so that it becomes much easier for start-ups, without having to run around for regulatory clearances.
In this connection, IT industry representative body Nasscom said in a report on Tuesday Indian start-ups are on fire, as they are on target to get a whopping $5 billion (Rs.32,558 crore) funding by this year-end.
“Total funding in the India-based start-ups is estimated to be around $5 billion by 2015, which is a massive 125 percent growth from $2.2 billion in 2014,” the National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom) said in a report released in Bengaluru.
Overtaking Israel, India has emerged as the third biggest start-up market worldwide after the US and Britain, with 4,200 start-ups, growing 40 percent over 2014.
“Our technology start-up landscape has seen a phenomenal growth in 2015, with the country moving up to third position in terms of investments secured from private equity, venture capitalists and angel investors and number of startups,” Nasscom president R. Chandrashekhar said, quoting from the report.
The report – “Start-up India-Momentous Rise of the Indian Start-up Ecosystem” is the second edition the apex IT body prepared with Bengaluru-based business management consultant Zinnov.
The report found cumulative funding of start-ups was $3.2 billion in 2010-14.
“India is the world’s youngest start-up nation, as 72 percent of its founders are younger than 35 years. What’s more, share of female entrepreneurs has jumped 50 percent this year from last year and nine percent of all start-ups are founded by women as co-founders,” Chandreshekhar said.
“About 1,200 start-ups have been set up so far this year, with majority of them in B2C (business to customer) category spanning e-commerce, consumer services and aggregators,” the report said.
Bengaluru, Mumbai and the National Capital Region (NCR) account for 93 percent of investments and 66 percent of all starts-ups are located in these three hi-tech clusters. Ahmedabad, Chennai, Hyderabad, Jaipur and Pune are emerging as start-up cities.
The State Scores Extra High on Gaming-Friendly Industry Index
Meghalaya scored 92.85 out of 100 possible points in a Gaming Industry Index and proved to be India’s most gaming-friendly state following its recent profound legislation changes over the field allowing land-based and online gaming, including games of chance, under a licensing regime.
The index by the UK India Business Council (UKIBC) uses a scale of 0 to 100 to measure the level of legalisation on gambling and betting achieved by a state based on the scores over a set of seven different games – lottery, horse racing, betting on sports, poker, rummy, casino and fantasy sports
Starting from February last year, Meghalaya became the third state in India’s northeast to legalise gambling and betting after Sikkim and Nagaland. After consultations with the UKIBC, the state proceeded with the adoption of the Meghalaya Regulation of Gaming Act, 2021 and the nullification of the Meghalaya Prevention of Gambling Act, 1970. Subsequently in December, the Meghalaya Regulation of Gaming Rules, 2021 were notified and came into force.
All for the Tourists
The move to legalise and license various forms of offline and online betting and gambling in Meghalaya is aimed at boosting tourism and creating jobs, and altogether raising taxation revenues for the northeastern state. At the same time, the opportunities to bet and gamble legally will be reserved only for tourists and visitors.
“We came out with a Gaming Act and subsequently framed the Regulation of Gaming Rules, 2021. The government will accordingly issue licenses to operate games of skill and chance, both online and offline,” said James P. K. Sangma, Meghalaya State Law and Taxation Minister speaking in the capital city of Shillong. “But the legalized gambling and gaming will only be for tourists and not residents of Meghalaya,” he continued.
To be allowed to play, tourists and people visiting the state for work or business purposes will have to prove their non-resident status by presenting appropriate documents, in a process similar to a bank KYC (Know Your Customer) procedure.
Meghalaya Reaches Out to a Vast Market
With 140 millions of people in India estimated to bet regularly on sports, and a total of 370 million desi bettors around prominent sporting events, as per data from one of the latest reports by Esse N Videri, Meghalaya is set to reach out and take a piece of a vast market.
Estimates on the financial value of India’s sports betting market, combined across all types of offline channels and online sports and cricket predictions and betting platforms, speak about amounts between $130 and $150 billion (roughly between ₹9.7 and ₹11.5 lakh crore).
Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Delhi are shown to deliver the highest number of bettors and Meghalaya can count on substantial tourists flow from their betting circles. The sports betting communities of Karnataka, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Haryana are also not to be underestimated.
Among the sports, cricket is most popular, registering 68 percent of the total bet count analyzed by Esse N Videri. Football takes second position with 11 percent of the bets, followed by betting on FIFA at 7 percent and on eCricket at 5 percent. The last position in the Top 5 of popular sports for betting in India is taken by tennis with 3 percent of the bet count.
Local Citizens will Still have Their Teer Betting
Meghalaya residents will still be permitted to participate in teer betting over arrow-shooting results. Teer is a traditional method of gambling, somewhat similar to a lottery draw, and held under the rules of the Meghalaya Regulation of the Game of Arrow Shooting and the Sale of Teer Tickets Act, 2018.
Teer includes bettors wagering on the number of arrows that reach the target which is placed about 50 meters away from a team of 20 archers positioned in a semicircle.
The archers shoot volleys of arrows at the target for ten minutes, and players place their bets choosing a number between 0 and 99 trying to guess the last two digits of the number of arrows that successfully pierce the target.
If, for example, the number of hits is 256, anyone who has bet on 56 wins an amount eight times bigger than their wager.
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