Even while Chandigarh is still dragging its feet to implement its own start-up policy, which was envisaged over five years ago and draft already formulated last year, Chandigarh adviser and other officers spoke heavy words on how city was “experiencing huge surge in start-up culture”. CII Chandigarh organised the ‘Chandigarh Startups Session’ as part of its flagship initiative, ICONN 2023 on Tuesday where Chandigarh Adviser Dharam Pal and other officials stressed that the UT has all the elements to make start-ups flourish. Interestingly, Chandigarh has not been able to finalise and implement its start-up policy even now, despite sitting over it for five years. The city even has 335 firms that are recognised under the Startup India initiative but there has been no implementation of a dedicated star-up policy. The theme at the CII session was ‘Be innovative, Be entrepreneurial, Be here’. Eminent speakers shared government strategies and policies being undertaken to support entrepreneurs in the region, which enable startups to ensure more purposeful, productive, agile, and flexible ways of conducting business where the UT adviser and secretary of industries also shared their views. “In Chandigarh, we are witnessing an extraordinary surge in the start-up culture, positioning it as a start-up hub for innovation and entrepreneurship. Its strategic location coupled with access to a skilled workforce from renowned educational institutions makes this region increasingly attractive to inspiring entrepreneurs,” Dharam Pal said. But, a dedicated policy is still not in sight. Even last year, Chandigarh Administration had stated that it was ready with the draft start up policy and had to release it by November/December 2022. It was in 2018 that the UT began drafting the start-up policy that too two years after Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiled the Startup India Policy. During unveiling the policy, he had directed UTs and states to frame their own policies which are designed as per the needs of the entrepreneurs in their regions. However, it is 2023 now and Chandigarh missed several deadlines since then. Locals say businesses being established in Punjab, Haryana Remarks like “Chandigarh's loss is Punjab's, Haryana's gain” and it's “high time” that Chandigarh implements its start-up policy were passed by UT residents when asked about the state of start-up ecosystem in the city. Siddharth Gupta, an industrialist, said that is has been almost a year since the draft of Chandigarh's start-up policy was released, however it is yet to be notified, adding that the UT administrator should fix accountability to ensure that policies are implemented in a time-bound manner. “This delay in implementation of the start-up policy is a prime example of the inept approach of the UT administration towards the entrepreneurs,” Gupta said. Naveen Manglani, Vice President, Chamber of Chandigarh Industries said in spite of the best efforts by the industries department, the administration has not been able to come out with their start-up policy yet. “Also the administration so far has not been able to ensure ease of doing business, because of the rigid estate issues. As a result, the start-ups are setting shops in neighbouring Punjab and Haryana, rather than Chandigarh,” he added.
