NEW DELHI: The government is planning to set up a non-profit company under the Start-up India programme to push all its start-up initiative. It is planning an ONDC-like platform to allow start-ups to register themselves, access and share information in order to allow them to network and collaborate across the entire start-up value chain.
As a first step towards this, the minister of commerce and industries Piyush Goyal launched a platform, Bhaskar (Bharat Startup Knowledge Access Registry), an initiative of Start-up India.
On the new platform, registered start-ups can seamlessly collaborate, share and access information about the ecosystem. Goyal said that his ministry has decided to set up as non-profit company so that all the elements of Start-up India are integrated and brought under one umbrella.
“Startup India has become a powerful name, the good system by itself should have a house of its own,” said the minister while floating the idea of a non-profit company to bring in all the government’s start-up initiatives under one roof. He also said that the new company should issue shares to unicorns, so that they also bring in their efficiency into the company.
Speaking about Bhaskar, Goyal said it is a one-stop digital platform for data dissemination, exchange, interaction for the entire start-up ecosystem through simple easy to use links and easy to navigate technology catalysing the growth and success of the start-up ecosystem across India and beyond.
He expressed hope that BHASKAR 2.0 would be improvised and released soon with enhanced features and technology so that it becomes like an ONDC platform for start-ups. ONDC is a section 8 (non-profit) company that promises to bring millions of offline retailers into the e-commerce fold. ONDC connects offline and online retailers with buyers and suppliers. Bhaskar promises to easily connect and collaborate with like-minded people via personalised dashboards and peer-to-peer connect features.
One can get registered on the platform, generate profile cards and get discovered across the start-up ecosystem. Bhaskar will house the ever-evolving start-up ecosystem stakeholders under one single roof, making it the largest digital registry of the start-up ecosystem in the world in the coming times.
So far 1.46 lakh start-ups registered under Start-up India initiative would be automatically migrated to the new platform.