About the author
Ananditha SR is a first year B.A.LL.B student studying at Government Law College, Thiruvananthapuram.
Kerala start up mission
Startups generally mean “a company built on innovation and technology wherein the founders work on the development of that product or services which has a high demand in the market.” Startups are considered to be temporary business organizations which mainly work on a scalable business model.
The Kerala Startup Mission (KSUM) is the nodal agency of the government of Kerala for promoting entrepreneurship in the state. It is also the implementing body for the Kerala Technology Startup Policy that supports the state’s startup ecosystem through the various schemes and support programs. KSUM was founded in 2006, with the goal to promote technology-based entrepreneurship activities and to create the infrastructure and ecosystem required to support high-end technology-based startup businesses.
In order to help startups in their entrepreneurial joinery Kerala Startup Mission has introduced various schemes to support startups. These schemes include Soft Loan Scheme for Women entrepreneurs for an amount limited to Rs.15 Lakhs as working capital for implementing works and projects, International Exchange program which encourages startups to participate in various startup events happening across the globe and supports the startup by offering delegated visits to Startups. KSUM is partnering with SEBI accredited Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs) to invest in the startups from Kerala. The state government will act as a limiter partner for the funds. Rural Innovators Meet (RIM) is an annual programme of innovators for encouraging and promoting the unorganized rural and grass root innovators. The programme provides a platform for the rural innovators to exhibit/demonstrate their innovations/products and also to interact with the Scientists and fellow innovators.
“Startup Clinic” is an initiative in the field of entrepreneurship which acts as a support system as it helps the business visionaries by providing a variety of business-based strategies, consultations, assisting via different platforms, helping with technical support and likewise other business aids which ultimately solves the challenges of founders. Startup clinics plays a very pivotal role starting from the scratch to making a startup successful.
Kerala Startup mission conducts various programmes for student entrepreneurs to provide them with the necessary knowledge required for building a world class enterprise. This will help to bridge the gap between the students and investors and promotes creative thinking and an entrepreneurial mindset among the Students/Alumni/Faculty/Venture Capitalist. For achieving this initiative KSUM provides student innovators many opportunities to show case their talents which include opportunity to be part of a structured programme and pitch in front of the expert panel by presenting their ideas and can avail Grants up to 2 Lacs, get Mentorship Support, Lab Supports, and other Product Development Supports from KSUM. It has launched an initiative named “Why Hack” to find out the best technology solutions for the pressing problems in the society. This will be conducted in association with Community partners once in every three months. It create awareness about entrepreneurship opportunities among school students and to inculcate scientific spirit among young minds.
These are the few such schemes among many which are launched by KSUM to support Startups.
In India, law is regarded as the essence of the society which regulates the human as well as the organisational behaviour. Indian Legal System going through tough time because of pendency of cases for years. Many efforts have been made to cope up with this situation. We need radical change in legal system and innovation is the answer to this. Marrying technology with legal services, many new-age startups have entered the market to make the sector more efficient, effective, and accessible to everyone who needs it. These startups offer a range of services to simplify the work of lawyers with tech-driven solutions. Let us now understand more about legal tech startups and its scope in India.
Legal tech startups
“It’s not about ideas. It’s about making ideas happen.”
– Scott Belsky
A legal startup is a small firm or organization that provides services related to the area of law. It may be a new law firm or a software company that provides cloud-based software to service legal practices. From robots to AI to automation, legal startups are making it easier and cheaper for people to get the help they need. Legal technology start-ups in India are assisting in the transformation of the Indian judiciary system. People who wants to stay in the legal field, but also want to make a positive impact on the world by being an entrepreneur set up legal startups. It is a newly formed organization providing innovative products or services to improve legal service delivery. There is rising demand in startups in legal profession. Legal professionals and students have great scopes in starting a legal tech startups in the following areas:
Document translation:
The need of the hour is to have online softwares or tools, trained by Artificial Intelligence (AI) and natural language processing (NLP), that can accurately translate from vernacular languages or Hindi into English. The gap may remain in getting it accepted by courts and startups could work with courts directly to address the same.
Document drafting and proofreading tool:
About 15–20% of a lawyer’s time goes towards drafting, proofreading and reviewing exercises including revisions of various documents. Start ups that can create a contract management tool that supports the entire contract creation workflow can be a solution to this problem. Such a startup would allow contract drafting, editing and collaborating, signing, storing and executing. It can incorporates eStamps, eSign and contracting & compliance capabilities that help in legal document processing.
Fulfil Individuals’ and Small Businesses’ Unmet Need for Legal Services:
The unmet need includes not only those who cannot afford legal services, but also those who do not realize that they have a legal problems. Legal startups are much focused on to provide their services to the needy and poor people who are unable to pay hefty fees of the lawyers. According to the studies, the minority class of the society or people who belong to below poverty line do not have access to legal aid because of financial issues. These startups mainly help such kind of people in granting them free legal aid in order to get justice from the court of law.
Large number of involvement of Students:
Earlier law firms used to hire the students who have completed law to work in their law firms but nowadays the students are much more interested to setup their own legal startup so that they can provide quality legal services to the people who are in dire need of it. Number of students is interested to work in these legal startups in order to provide quick access of legal services to the legal departments resulting into improvement of legal delivery systems.
Online legal services:
Services like resolution of queries, quick interaction with the experts, knowledge of law etc. can be provided to the clients. Startups can educate the people about their legal rights, laws applied in different sectors, penal sanctions, etc. With advanced identity verification technology and a network of licensed notaries, offers a fast, convenient, and reliable solution for notarization needs. It can also provide users with an easy and affordable way to create wills, trusts, and other estate planning documents.
Legal defence made accessible to everyone:
Startups can help individuals respond to debt collection lawsuits without hiring an attorney. It can provide users with a guided questionnaire to help them create a legal answer to a debt collection lawsuit, as well as document templates and instructions for filing. With affordable and easy-to-use platform, legal defence can be made accessible to everyone, particularly those who cannot afford an attorney.
These are a very few such areas among the many where legal startups can play a big role so that legal services can be easily accessible and affordable. Analysing this article we can conclude that there is a great opportunity for legal professionals to put to reality their ideas and be an entrepreneur in the field of law.
