largest start-up ecosystem in the world with more than 90,000 such firms, and over 100 unicorns. To “build a strong ecosystem for nurturing innovation and [start-ups]”, the Indian government launched the Startup India programme in 2016, and one would have expected that regulatory provisions would be fully aligned with that aim. On the contrary, the start-up ecosystem has been caught in the cross hairs of a tax provision, ‘angel tax’ in popular parlance, which has turned into its Achilles heel. In fact, a new twist introduced recently may end up increasing the pain, in what is a classic case of a provision being brought in to curb the mischief of some that ends up hurting
