A. FUNDING SOURCES

Sam Altman (Equity)

Sam Altman is looking at funding startups working on:

• Producing a lot of ventilators or masks/gowns very quickly. This will require a lot of repurposing and creativity but thankfully is an engineering problem not a scientific ones.
• Screening existing drugs for effectiveness.
• Novel approaches to vaccines (i.e., not doing what the big pharma companies are already doing).
• Novel therapeutics that the big pharma companies are unlikely to work on.

Link: https://blog.samaltman.com/funding-for-covid-19-projects

Bexley Advisors Covid-19 Action Fund (Equity)

Designed to aid innovators, who are creating solutions to deal with critical challengesbrought about due to the pandemic.

Link: https://www.bexleyadvisors.com/bacoaf

Emergent Ventures – EV India (Grant)

A fellowship and grant program from the MercatusCenter, seeks to support entrepreneurs and brilliant minds with highly scalable, “zero to one” ideas for meaningfully improving society.

Link: https://www.mercatus.org/emergent-ventures

Open Road Alliance (Loan/Grant)

Open Road Alliance is offering loans and charitable grants to the impact enterprises that fulfil the following criteria:

• Otherwise fully funded, then
• Hit an unexpected, external roadblock (i.e., COVID-19), where
• Open Road’s loan can fully solve the problem at hand and
• Demonstrate the potential to create catalytic impact. In this time of exceptional need, we will be prioritizing impact

Link: https://openroadalliance.org/resource/covid-19/

SIDBI SHWAS (Loan)

The SIDBI assistance to Healthcare sector in War Against Second wave of COVID-19 (SHWAS) Scheme offers Working capital Term Loanof uptoRs. 200 Lakhs to MSMEs engaged in manufacturing of oxygen cylinders, oxy-generators, oxygen concentrators, liquid oxygen or providing services in transportation, storage, and refilling to supply of these items.

Link: https://www.sidbi.in/en

SIDBI AROG (Loan)

The SIDBI Assistance to MSMEs for Recovery and Organic Growth during COVID-19pandemic (AROG) is put in place with an objective to aid the purchase of raw materials and equipment by MSMEs engaged in manufacturing of products or providing services which are directly related to fighting corona virus, such as Pulse Oximeters, Permitted drugs (Remdesivir, Fabiflu, Dexamethasone, Azithromycin, etc.), Ventilators, PPEs etc.

Link: https://www.sidbi.in/en

SIDBI Scheme for Special Liquidity Support to MSMEs through NBFCs

The objective of this Scheme is to provide liquidity support to Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs) impacted due to COVID-19, through the NBFCs. The Scheme would provide resource support to NBFCs to ensure operational continuity and promote onward lending to MSE sector.

Link: https://sidbi.in/en/liquidity-support-msme

NIDHI4COVID2.0

A special drive by the National Science & Technology Entrepreneurship Development Board (NSTEDB), Department of Science & Technology (DST), Government of India (GoI) for supporting indigenous solutions to combat the current health crisis. Seed and Mentoring support will be provided to the startups through the DST-supported network of Technology Business Incubators, for scaling their products/technologies and speeding up their processes, if:

• The startup is registered in India.
• The startupis engaged in the development and manufacturing (import substitution) of products parts currently that are currently imported for the devices like Oxygen Concentrators, etc.
• The startup is offering promising solutions in areas of oxygen innovation, portable solution, relevant medical accessories, diagnostic, informatics, or any other solution that can alleviatethe motley challenges faced by the country due to the second wave.

Link: https://dst.gov.in/news/special-initiative-nidhi4covid20-calling-startups-and-innovators-join-war-against-covid19

B. REGULATORY REFORMS

Income Tax

• The due date for filing income tax returns for 2020-21 has been extended till 30 September 2021.
• The date for filing the tax audit report and transfer pricing certificate has been extended by a month till 31 October and 30 November, respectively.
• The deadline for employers to issue Form 16 to employees has been extended till 15 July 2021.
• For filing belated or revised return of income, the due date is now 31 January, 2022.

GST

• The due date to file GSTR-4 for FY 2020-21 has been extended from 30th April 2021 to 31 May 2021.
• Form CMP-08 that was due by 18 April 2021 for January-March 2021 has been given a relaxation in the interest charges. No interest for filing on or before 8 May, interest reduced to 9% between 9 May and 23 May, but charged at 18% thereafter.
• The time limit to file ITC-03 by newly opted composition taxable persons for FY 2021-22 is extended up to 31 May 2021.
• The tax holiday for startupsextended has been extended by a year. So now, the startups incorporated between 1 April 2021 and 31 March 2022 are eligible to claim a 100% tax rebate on their profits for three years in a block of seven years, provided their annual turnover threshold doesn’t exceed Rs. 25 crores in any financial year.

Loan Moratorium

Under the RBI Resolution Framework 2.0, eligible borrowers, who did not use the first loan moratorium offered last year, can avail of the second one.For those who did avail the first one, loan moratorium could be extended up to a total period of 2 years with consultation with the lender.

C. GOI INITIATIVES (KNOWLDGE & INFORMATION)

• The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, has set up a control room to monitor the manufacturing, logistics, and distribution of essential commodities amid the ongoing COVID-related restrictions.The control room will try to resolve issues faced during manufacturing, movement or distribution of essential supplies, including via e-commerce.

  Those facing issues may get in touch at:

  Telephone: +91-11 23062487, Email: controlroom-dpiit@gov.in.

• The national investment promotion and facilitation agency, Invest India, has set up a Business Immunity Platform (BIP) for business issue redressal, with a team of dedicated sector experts who respond to queries at the earliest.

D. GOOGLE RESOURCES

Google is offering a bouquet of resources to help startups and small businesses sail through the current challenges and adopt efficiently to the New Normal.

Link: https://startup.google.com/tools/coronavirus-resources-for-startups/