Lucknow / Dec 10, 2020
The National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM) will extend its flagship ‘10,000 Startups’ Warehouse programme in Uttar Pradesh and setup an incubator wing at Noida.
NASSCOM Warehouse is a joint initiative between the Information Technology (IT) trade body and the respective state governments to promote startups by providing a connected network of startups.
The UP government has approved the proposal of seven new startup incubators, including the NASSCOM Warehouse.
Apart from NASSCOM, six new startup incubators to be set up by leading educational and research institutions, including Banaras Hindu University (BHU) and Jainpuria Institute of Management, across UP have been approved by the state nodal committee headed by UP additional chief secretary, IT and electronics, Alok Kumar.
Launched in April 2013, NASSCOM ‘10,000 Startups’ is aimed at scaling up the startup ecosystem by enabling incubation, funding and support for 10,000 technology startups in India over successive 10 years. Established in 1988, NASSCOM is a non-profit trade association of IT and Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) companies.
“These incubators will act as the points of first contacts for entrepreneurs and startup promoters. This would lend support to the trained youth to become entrepreneurs and also develop the startup ecosystem in the state,” Kumar said.
Under the UP Startup Policy 2020, the Yogi Adityanath government is targetting to set up 10,000 startups and 100 incubators, including the country’s largest incubator at Lucknow, spanning all 75 districts with at least one incubator in each district.
So far, 18 startup incubators have already become operational and the count would go up to 25 with the approval of seven new entities. Currently, about 2,850 startups are functional in the state.
The state government has estimated the new policy will help in generating 150,000 direct and indirect employment and self employment opportunities. At present, UP is ranked among the top three in the states’ Startup Rankings, and the Adityanath government is targetting to further improve its ranking.
The state has also developed an online clearance system and set up a Rs 1,000 crore ‘Startup Fund’ with the help of Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI), apart from a ‘UP Angel Network’ to handhold green business ventures.
According to the state government, prominent venture capital and angel investor funds had evinced keen interest in the UP Startup Fund.
Before the UP Startup Policy 2020 was promulgated, the state startups were governed under the UP Information Technology and Start-up Policy 2017, which was primarily focussed on the IT sector while neglecting other fields.
However, the new policy has accorded parity to the startups spanning all key segments viz. agriculture, medical and health, energy, Khadi, education, tourism, transport etc. The policy was prepared after studying the startup policies of leading states and taking the feedback from sectoral experts.
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