The Central Government has now decided to nominate the non-official members on the National Startup Advisory Council representing various stakeholders such as founders of successful startups, veterans who have grown and scaled companies in India, persons capable of representing interest of investors into startups, persons capable of representing interests of incubators and accelerators, representatives of associations of stakeholders of startups and representatives of industry associations. The nominated non-official members are as follows:-

1. Shri Byju Raveendran, Byju’s

2. Ms. Shradha Sharma, YourStory

3. Ms. Lizzie Chapman, ZestMoney

4. Shri Abhiraj Singh, Urban Company

5. Shri Kunal Bahl, Snapdeal

6. Shri Deepak Garg, Rivigo Service

7. Shri Bhavish Aggarwal, Ola Cab

8. Shri Krishna Kumar, Cropln

9. Shri Sanjeev Bhikchandani, Info Edge India

10. Shri Sridhar Vembu, Zoho Corp

11. Shri Kris Gopalakrishnan, Axilor Ventures

12. Shri Dr Subba Rao Pavuluri, Anath Technologies

13. Shri Mohandas Pai, Aarin Capital Partners

14. Shri Gopal Srinivasan, TVS Capital Funds Limited

15. Shri Ramesh Byrapaneni, Endiya Partners

16. Shri Prashant Prakash, Accel

17. Ms. Vani Kola, Kalaari Capital

18. Shri Manoj Kohli, Softbank India

19. Shri Rajan Anandan, Sequoia Capital India

20. Shri Amitabha Bandyopadhyay SIIC, IIT Kanpur

21. Shri Kunal Upadhayaya, CIIE, IIM Ahmedabad

22. Ms. Renuka Ramnath, Indian Private Equity & VentureCapital Association

23. Shri Venkatesh Shukla,The IndUS Entrepreneurs (TiE)

24. Shri Sharad Sharma, Indian Software Product Industry RoundTable (iSpirit).

25. Ms. Debjani Ghosh, National Association of Software and Service      Companies (NASSCOM)

26. Shri Uday Kotak, Confederation of Indian Industry (CII)

27. Shri Vineet Agarwal, Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM

28. Shri Uday Shankar, Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI)

The term of the Non-official members of the Startup Advisory Council shall be for a period of two years or until further orders, whichever is earlier.

Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) had constituted the ‘National Startup Advisory Council’ vide Notification No.5(24)/2019-Startup India dated 21^st January 2020 to advise the Government on measures needed to build a strong ecosystem for nurturing innovation and startups in the country to drive sustainable economic growth and generate large scale employment opportunities. The council shall, inter alia, suggest measures to:

1. Foster a culture of innovation amongst citizens and students in particular;
2. Promote innovation in all sectors of economy across the country, including semi-urban and rural areas;
3. Support creative and  innovative ideas through incubation and research and development to transform them into valuable products, processes or solutions to improve productivity and efficiency;
4. Create an environment of absorption of innovation in industry;
5. Facilitate public organizations to assimilate innovation with a view to improving public service delivery;
6. Promote creation, protection and commercialization of intellectual property rights;
7. Make it easier to start, operate, grow and exit businesses by reducing regulatory compliances and costs;
8. Promote ease of access to capital for startups;
9. Incentivize domestic capital for investments into startups;
10. Mobilize global capital for investments in Indian startups;
11. Keep control of startups with original promoters.
12. Provide access to global markets for Indian startups.

Nomination of non-official members to the National Startup Advisory Council establishes two-year terms to advise on startup ecosystem measures. The Central Government nominated non-official stakeholders-founders, entrepreneurs, investors, incubators, accelerators and industry association representatives-to the National Startup Advisory Council, specifying a two-year term or until further orders. The Council advises the Government on strengthening the startup ecosystem, including fostering innovation, promoting sectoral and regional innovation, supporting incubation and R&D, facilitating industry and public-sector adoption of innovation, promoting intellectual property commercialization, easing regulatory burdens for start-up lifecycle, and improving access to domestic and global capital while safeguarding promoter control.