Category Policy Update

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Funding India’s AI Startups – Assessing IndiaAI Startup Financing Pillar (2024)

Foundation models, national compute infrastructure, and sovereign datasets alone cannot sustain India's AI ambitions without a parallel mechanism to fund the startups building on top of them. The IndiaAI Startup Financing pillar was conceived to fill this gap — supporting deep-tech AI startups with streamlined access to capital, given the capital-intensive, long-gestation nature of AI product development compared to conventional software startups.

Arjya shree

Expanding National pension Scheme (NPS) to NRIs, 2015 

The National Pension System (NPS), regulated by the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) under the PFRDA Act, 2013, was expanded to Non Resident Indians (NRIs) in 2015 to broaden access to a structured, market linked retirement savings mechanism. NPS was initially introduced for Central Government employees effective 1 January 2004 and extended voluntarily to all Indian citizens from 1 May 2009 under the All Citizen Model. The specific expansion enabling NRIs to subscribe occurred through amendments to the Foreign Exchange Management (Transfer or Issue of Security by a Person Resident Outside India) Regulations, 2000.

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GST Rate Rationalization Framework: Evaluating Input Tax Credit Fraud and Structural Revenue Efficiency

The rollout of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) in July 2017 marked the most extensive structural overhaul of India's fiscal federalism, subsuming 17 distinct central and state levies along with 13 cesses into a single indirect taxation architecture. Designed to eliminate the cascading tax-on-tax effect, establish a unified national market, and accelerate economic formalization, the original GST regime was constructed around a four-tier rate structure comprising 5%, 12%, 18%, and 28% tax slabs, supplemented by special reduced rates for precious metals and an additional Compensation Cess on select luxury and sin goods. While this multi-tiered framework was politically essential at inception to achieve revenue neutrality and protect low-income consumption, over time it introduced operational frictions, tax classification disputes, and severe structural distortions.   

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