Start-Ups Urge Government To Address Digital Infra, Tax, Data Issues

Representatives of digital economy and start-ups on Saturday urged the government to build digital infrastructure and scale up and incentivise research & development within India.

They shared their views and suggestions regarding big data, data mining, building of digital infrastructure as the big challenge before the Indian economy, besides scaling up and incentivising R&D within India.

The experts also suggested a variety of solutions to the sector-specific problems. Development of start-ups and Micro Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) eco-system in the country also featured in various suggestions.

Experts and representatives gave suggestions related to enhancement of public services through data analytics, development of efficient citizen-government interaction by development of public services applications, building big data capacity for MSME sector, inter-linkages and data sharing within the government and with private players.

There were suggestions related to Angel Tax, the need for assessment and dealing with digital frauds, especially cross-border digital frauds, and deceptive practices and setting up of an agency to deal with them, incentivizing Indian IP products and funding Open Source Innovation, differential tax structure for assembled and manufactured goods.

There were other suggestions on reduction of dependence on international software service providers, continuation of existing tax benefits to digital companies, reduction in corporate tax, tapping into Artificial Intelligence for streamlining health services, development of legislation for data governance and incentivizing Indian intellectual property professionals among others.

The meeting was attended by Subhash C Garg, finance secretary, Ajay Prakash Sawhney, secretary, Department of Electronics and Information technology, and Aruna Sundarajan, secretary, Department of Telecommunications, among others.