In a bid to encourage the young entrepreneurs and promote innovation among startups, Chhattisgarh Government is planning to set up a Startup Village. The announcement was made after the high-level delegation comprising top officials of the state government visited the Kochi-based Startup Village to learn more about the incubation facility and explore ways to set up a similar service in their state.
The delegation was led by Rajat Kumar, Joint Secretary to the Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh. During his visit, he discussed the working model of upcoming Startup Village with the executives. He also assured the possible support and expertise in setting up a facility at Naya Raipur.
Speaking on the plans, Rajat Kumar said, “We are very impressed with the whole ecosystem that MobMe (the promoters), the Union Department of Science and Technology, Kerala government and other players have together created for the young entrepreneurs. The Chhattisgarh government is also planning to start a project along similar lines. We saw inspired, motivated young boys and girls turning their ideas into useful products and applications. We are sure that the environment provided here will go a long way in not only providing employment to lot of youngsters but also to make India a true IT hub.”
“We are really happy that other states are looking up to Startup Village for inspiration. It is truly a recognition for our efforts over the last 30 months in creating an ecosystem which supports young entrepreneurs. We will soon bring out a blueprint on Startup Village that can be adopted by other states,” said Startup Village Chairman Sanjay Vijayakumar.
Prior to this, other states like Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and Madhya Pradesh had also announced to open Startup Village and other initiatives in their respective states.
In January 2013, Startup Village and the Kerala government launched an initiative called SVSquare. Under this initiative it selects promising young entrepreneurs from India every year and send them on an all-expense paid trip to the U.S. Startup Village aims to launch 1,000 technology startups over the next 10 years and start the search for the next billion-dollar Indian company.
Other Initiatives by State Governments
Earlier in last year, the Karnataka government had joined hands with IT industry body, Nasscom to launch one of Asia’s largest startup warehouse of 50,000 square feet in Bangalore. Nasscom already operates a startup warehouse in Bangalore, which is of around 9,000 sq ft. Besides, Nasscom has recently launched a 6,000 sq ft startup warehouse in Kolkata with a capacity of 60 seats.
The Andhra Pradesh Government is also keen on creating IT Investment Region in Visakhapatnam, Anantapur and Tirupati. The State aims to have 5,000 startups by year 2020 and through that create more employment opportunities. A State innovation fund with a corpus of Rs. 100 crore was created to encourage startups. The Government of Andhra Pradesh has also released the country’s first-of-its-kind Innovation and Start-up Policy 2014-2020 that aims at incubating 5,000 startups and 100 incubators with over 1 million sft office space by June 2019.
Tamil Nadu government is also planning to set up incubation facilities with the help of Nasscom for startups to promote new ventures and assist upcoming entrepreneurs by creating a rich ecosystem. The first startup warehouse will be set up at Tidal Park in Chennai.
Last year, the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, Shivraj Singh Chouhan had also announced INR 100 Cr. venture capital fund to incubate and promote startups in the state.
According to a recent Nasscom report, India is the fourth largest base for young businesses in the world with more than 3,100 tech startups. Further, this is expected to increase to 11,500 by 2020 and the industry is expected to create about 2,50,000 jobs in the next five years.
