Government to launch special funds for start-ups – Y S Chowdary
Pune, September 10: There is a need of proper eco-system to be set up for the start-ups of India, as there are numerous innovative ideas but they are lacking from the support of incubators, mentioned Y S Chowdary, the Minister of State for Science & Technology and Earth Science. He was addressing the XI ISBA 2016 conference of Indian STEPs and Business Incubators’ Association (ISBA) which started today in the city. Chowdary said, “We as a country need to focus more on job creation by supporting the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) sector. The start-up initiators should also tap the rural India.”
Girish Bapat, Minister of Civil Suppliers & FDA, Ramdas Athavale, Minister of State, Social Justice and Empowerment (Government of India), Deepak Kesarkar, Minister of State Home, Planning and Finance (Government of Maharashtra), Pramod Chaudhari, President – SCITECH Park, Dr. Raghunath Mashelkar, President – Global Research Alliance, Dr. Rajendra Jagdale, President – ISBA, Prof. S. K. Joshi, Chairman – STEP Advisory Committee, DTS (Government of India), Dr. Vadim Kotelnikov – renowned Innovation Guru and other officials from ISBA were also present during the conference.
During this occasion, Y S Chowdary mentioned that the government is planning to launch special funds to the age group of between 16 & 21 and 21 & 26 for start-ups.
Addressing the theme of conference, Dr. Mashelkar said, “We require changing our mindset from imitation to innovation. There are many start-ups who are a clone of others and working on the common concepts, whereas we are in need of innovating more ideas.” He mentioned that Talent, Technology and Trust are the foundation of any start-up. Risk is required to be taken by the youth which can be supported by the society. The country today has very less number of Angel Investors, risk plays an important part for start-ups, added Dr. Mashelkar.
On this occasion, the dignitaries also unveiled three start-up products, those are Sci-tech Surya (a solar lamp), Diagnom (snake bite diagnose machine) and Running Machine (a Power Bicycle). Dr. Rajendra Jagdale along with Sanjay Sharma and Shyam Appala, the entrepreneurs from Silicon Valley launched Indo-US Joint Early Stage Fund of Rs. 40 million for the start-ups.
This year the theme of the conference is based on ‘Powering the Start-up Enablers: Incubators, Accelerators, Innovation Clusters & Co working Spaces’. This year there are around 400 participants and 82 speakers across and outside the country who will attend the 2-day ISBA conference. The conference will conclude on Sunday, September 11th, 2016.
