Failure should not be held against a startup - Nirmala Sitharaman

Tomorrow, India will witness something not many would have thought possible until just a few years ago. Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address entrepreneurs at Vigyan Bhawan and launch the action plan for ‘Start Up India, Stand Up India’, marking a new chapter in the history of startups in India. The commitment and support from the government has been never more promising. In the past three days, as a build-up to the main event, DIPP Secretary and the man behind Make In India, Amitabh Kant, and Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha participated in hour-long twitter chats hosted by YourStory. Today it was Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Commerce and Industry Nirmala Sitharaman's turn to participate in the #StartupIndia chat.

Ms Sitharaman's political career has been characterised by a meteoric rise. In a field where people spend decades to attain recognition, she became a minister within just eight years of entering politics. She was well known for her role as the national spokesperson of Bhartiya Janata Party, along with Meenakshi Lekhi (and four others). Ms Sitharaman is a former member of the National Commission for Women and was earlier a senior manager at PwC and also worked with the BBC's World Service.

During the Twitter chat, Ms Sitharaman responded to some important questions on women's representation, the government’s role, and taxation policies. Here’s a summary of the third and final pre-event #StartupIndia Twitter chat:

Stay tuned for live updates on #StartupIndia on 16th January (tomorrow).

YourStory is a partner for the Government of India’s ‘Start-up India’ initiative being launched on 16 January 2016 in New Delhi.