India seeks incubation and funding support
Incubation and funding support is being sought for more than 550 Startups which have been mentored by the Startup India Hub as of June 2018, said the Minister of State of Commerce and Industry, C. R. Chaudhary said in the Lok Sabha on 23 July 2018.
He said 220,000 registrations have been achieved and over one lakh queries have been handled as of June this year.
Eighty incubation centers including Atal Incubation Centres and Established Incubation Centres have been selected for funding by the NITI Aayog in the second phase of Statrup India programme announced in May 2018.
Nineteen Incubation Centres were selected in the first phase in year 2017-18.
Atal Innovation Mission has launched the Incubation Centre Monitoring and Evaluation Platform in July 2018 where data related to incubation performance is submitted by incubators every month.
The performance analysis will be conducted once there is sizable data from monthly reports, said Chaudhary.
At present, more than 360 start-ups have been incubated in the Atal Incubation Centres and Established Incubation Centres, established by the Atal Innovation Mission.
Thirty-one incubators have been setup under Startup India Initiative by the Department of Bio-Technology and their performance is reviewed on yearly basis by National Level Experts.
The Department of Science and Technology has set up 11 Technology Business Incubators (TBI) under the Startup India action plan.
The performance of the TBIs is evaluated during periodic review by the National Expert Advisory Committee on Innovation, Incubation and Technology Entrepreneurship.
He said 2,441 schools have been selected for establishing tinkering labs under Atal Innovation Mission and Rs. 12 Lakh each has been disbursed to 1,657 tinkering labs.
Fifteen Startup Centres have been approved for building Innovation Centres at National Institutes jointly by Department of Science and Technology and Ministry of Human Resource Development.
Startup India portal has been developed to provide one stop solution for all queries related to the Startup India initiative and Startup India mobile app has also been developed to provide on the go services and information to users.
Chaudhary said 11,129 Startups have been recognised till 15 July 2018 and over 215,000 registrations achieved under learning and dvelopment module.
Patent filing has been made faster for Startups and 1,029 facilitators have been empanelled to assist Startups in fling of patents and trademarks.
He said 743 applications have received rebate of up to 80% on patent fees legal assistance.
Trademark facilitation has been extended to 1,095 Startups as of June 2018.
Public procurement norms has been relaxed for Startups by the Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise. Provision has also been made for faster exit of Startups in Resolution Process under Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code.
The Small Industries Development Bank of India has released Rs. 500 crore in FY16 and Rs. 100 crore in FY 17 out of the Rs.10,000 crore Fund of Funds for Startups (FFS).
Total amount of FFS is to be released over two Finance Commission cycles, that is, by the year 2025.
Total commitments under FFS stand at Rs.1,285.7 crore to 27 Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs) while 142 Startups have received funding under FFS with catalysed investment of Rs.602.60 crores. fiinews.com
