Start-ups bat for tax sops, investment incentives in Union Budget

The startup community, which has started facing funds crunch of late, is looking to the Union Budget 2016 for an easy tax regime, relaxation in investment norms and furtherincentives for innovation.

The country is home to over 18,000 startups, making it the third-largest in the world after the US and England.

“iSpirt has represented to the finance ministry that a small basket of tax sops merely will not be effective for the existing system which is riddled with several bottlenecks," co-founder of iSpirt Foundation Sharad Sharma told PTI. Read More.

Maternal and child health could be a top priority for the government, says Economic Survey

Understanding that relatively low-cost maternal and early-life health and nutrition programmes offer very high returns on investment, investing in these two sectors could become a top policy priority of the government, said the economic survey, Budget 2016.

“One can build clinics in villages or transfer money to pregnant mothers or build latrines, but how does one bring out the right usage of all this physical capital is the next task in front of the government,” stated the survey.Read More.