The Karnataka Cabinet on Thursday, December 22, approved the Karnataka Startup Policy 2022-27, which aims at stimulating the growth of 25,000 startups in the state by 2027. Currently, the state houses around 15,000 startups. CN Ashwath Narayan, Minister for Information Technology, Biotechnology, and Science and Technology, said that the new policy has a goal to add at least 10,000 startups in the next five years. The new policy framed by the Department of Electronics, Information Technology, Biotechnology, and Science and Technology aims to position Karnataka as the ‘champion state' for startups and further increase the number of high-growth startups by 2027, Narayan said.
The policy has a dedicated focus on promoting startups in emerging technology clusters ‘Beyond Bengaluru’ by creating a conducive environment and offering startups an ideal ecosystem for their growth. The policy intends to give impetus to encouraging social entrepreneurship/assistive technology innovations and facilitate innovative technology solutions in social governance sectors to address the existing social challenges in environmental, social, and governance (ESG) framework, enabling to meet sustainable development goals (SDGs), the minister said.
According to The Times of India, a Rs 100 crore venture capital fund will support the upcoming startups in Artificial Intelligence (AI), machine learning, electric vehicles, robotics, and drones. Startups will also get a one-time grant fund of up to Rs 50 lakh. The policy aims to create at least 50 new-age innovation networks (NAIN) in technical institutes in Bengaluru. The policy states that each NAIN will get up to Rs 5 lakh per student project for three years and up to Rs 12 lakh for operational expenditure every year.
"The vision of the policy is to play a vital role in creating an enabling environment across the state for nurturing startups throughout their business lifecycle and make Karnataka a global innovation hub for startups," Ashwath Narayan said.
The policy has seven objectives, which include strengthening the infrastructure setup in government institutions and supporting the ecosystem with a greater thrust on emerging clusters 'Beyond Bengaluru'.
(With agency inputs)