BHUBANESWAR: In what could give a big push to the startup ecosystem in Odisha, the Ministry of Electronics and IT has selected Bhubaneswar for implementation of next generation incubation scheme (NGIS) to support innovative enterprises.
Bhubaneswar is among 12 tier-II cities of the country chosen for the much-vaunted initiative. Other cities are Agartala, Bhilai, Bhopal, Dehradun, Guwahati, Jaipur, Lucknow, Prayagraj, Mohali, Patna and Vijayawada.
NGIS has been entrusted to Software Technology Park of India (STPI) for supporting 300 innovative startups engaged in software product development, including embedded electronics, through a synergised pan-India approach.
Replying to an unstarred question by Rajya Sabha member Sasmit Patra, Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar said NGIS has a budgetary outlay of Rs 95.03 crore over a period of three years.
“Selected startups will be incentivised with seed-fund of up to Rs 25 lakh each. Other expenses also have been earmarked towards marketing support, intern/challenge grant, software product security testing service, hackathon, manpower and management,” he said.
The Ministry has established 20 Centres of Entrepreneurship (CoEs) in the country, two of which are located at Bhubaneswar.Under the Technology Incubation and Development of Entrepreneurs (TIDE 2.0) scheme launched to promote tech entrepreneurship through financial and technical support to incubators, KIIT Technology Business Incubator and Foundation for Technology and Business Incubation (FTBI), NIT Rourkela have been set up.So far 15 startups have been on-boarded in both the centres, Chandrasekhar said.