The Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion (DIPP) is mulling the launch of a portal connecting all startup ecosystems across India. It is also working on a detailed learning programme for aspiring entrepreneurs, for which it has already received 110,000 applications, according to a report by the Times of India.
The objective of the portal is to bring all stakeholders, ranging from collaborators, innovators and funding agencies, together under one platform.
Speaking to TOI, Aastha Grover, advisor (startup), DIPP said that DIPP wants new ideas to germinate from the state level. “And for that, we have come up with this free online learning programme. It is now available in English and Hindi. But, we are so keen on inviting new ideas, we will launch it in all major Indian languages soon. The soft launch of the ecosystem portal has already been made to get views from all the stakeholders. The hard launch will be done shortly. We want all to know the proper channel - both administrative as well as business ones - to take business ideas forward,” she added.
According to Grover, Jaipur, Hyderabad and Kochi are the new upcoming cities in this space, while Bangalore, Mumbai and Delhi are the startup hubs of the country. Nearly 65% of startups are concentrated in these three cities.
In June 2016, the Union cabinet cleared the Fund of Funds for startups of Rs 10,000 crore for nine years under the Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI). As part of the Start-up India Action Plan, these funds will be contributions to various venture capital funds registered with SEBI.
Grover told TOI that Rs 643 crore had been already disbursed through the VCs. “There is another debt credit-guaranteed fund," she said adding that nearly 843 startups had been already registered with the DIPP after which they would get certain benefits. These would necessarily have to be either private limited liability or public limited liability partnership companies.