Startup India: We woke up late to startups, I own up for delay: President Mukherjee

On the eve of the launch of Startup India campaign by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, President Pranab Mukherjee on Friday night said that India has “woken up” too late on the startup movement. He went on to say that he owned up responsibility for the delay in recognising the potential of startups in India. He noted that he had been in administration earlier. Mukherjee, while interacting with a delegation of CEOs from the Silicon Valley, said India needs to grow at the rate of 10 per cent over period of next 10-15 years in order to address the issues of poverty and healthcare. “Some of you have correctly pointed out that they (new entrepreneurs) feel confident, they want to do. It is the job of the government to create the policy environment to encourage entrepreneurship. We have taken too long but nonetheless we have taken that decision. We have woken up,” he told the CEOs while referring to the Start-Up campaign which is aimed at boosting entrepreneurship at grassroots level.

While talking about the delay in creating an environment enabling for small entrepreneurs, Mukherjee, who had served as Finance Minister in the previous UPA government, said, “I cannot pass on the buck to anybody. I will have to take the buck to myself because I was in administration too long.”

He appreciated Modi for taking the initiative. With inputs from PTI