Startup

The government is set to create the country’s first “startup district” replete with incubation centres and tinkering labs for schools as part of efforts to devise innovation solutions in agriculture, health and education, according to a report in The Times of India.

Incubators give startups space to operate, and mentoring so that they can scale up their business.

Commerce Minister Nirmal Sitharaman is reportedly pitching for the cluster to be developed in Mangalore. The minister is a Rajya Sabha MP from Karnataka.

The report quoted a person familiar with the developments as saying that apart from funding the initiative, the government will ensure that roads, electricity and digital networks are provided for the project. However, no cost assessment has been done so far. He said that the incubation centres will provide specialised services for sectors including agriculture, medicine and pharma, along with information technology.

The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion and the government’s policy think-thank NITI Aayog will throw open a grand challenge in March to pick the institution that will operate the incubation centres and the school-level tinkering labs.

As part of the Startup India action plan announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in January last year, the government wants to promote entrepreneurship, provide pre-incubation training and a seed fund for high-growth startups. It is also keen expand the startup culture in cities other than Hyderabad and Bengaluru.


 

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