Startup India (DPIIT) Recognition

What DPIIT recognition is

Recognition is granted by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade to entities that meet the Startup India criteria. It produces a recognition number and certificate, and it is the prerequisite for almost every benefit announced under the initiative. There is no government fee.

It is not, by itself, a tax exemption, a grant or a funding commitment. Recognition is a status; each benefit attached to it has its own gate, and some of those gates are considerably narrower than the publicity suggests.

Who is eligible

• Incorporated as a private limited company, an LLP or a registered partnership firm
• Not more than ten years old from incorporation or registration
• Annual turnover never exceeding ₹100 crore in any financial year since incorporation
• Working towards innovation, development or improvement of a product, process or service, or a scalable model with high potential for employment generation or wealth creation
• Not formed by splitting up or reconstructing an existing business

The innovation test is where applications fail

Eligibility on age, turnover and entity type is arithmetic; the innovation criterion is judgement, and it is the one that gets applications rejected. A distribution or trading business that simply resells an existing product will usually not clear it, however profitable. What works is a specific account of the problem, what your product or process does differently, and why the model scales — supported where possible by a patent application, a working product, customer traction or an incubator association. We draft that case rather than pasting in a company description.

The 80-IAC tax holiday is a separate application

Section 80-IAC allows an eligible startup to claim a deduction of its profits for three consecutive years out of its first ten, chosen by the startup. Recognition does not grant it. A separate application is made and decided by an inter-ministerial board, approval rates are low, and the deduction is only useful once you are actually profitable and not carrying forward losses. We will model whether it is worth pursuing before you spend on it.

Benefits that apply more reliably

The procurement relaxations are the most immediately usable: recognised startups are exempted from prior turnover and experience requirements in many government tenders, which is otherwise a closed door for a two-year-old company. Alongside that sit facilitation and fee rebates on patent and trademark filings, self-certification of compliance under specified labour and environment laws for an initial period, access to funds routed through the Fund of Funds for Startups, and a faster exit route. Recognition also carries weight with investors, incubators and state startup policies that reference DPIIT status.

Why apply through TCC

We will tell you before you engage us whether your business is likely to clear the innovation test, because a refused application wastes more than the fee. Where it fits, we write the case properly, file it, handle clarifications, and then help you actually use the recognition — in tenders, in trademark filings and, where the numbers justify it, in an 80-IAC application.