Kicked off by the Centre, Startup India is now finding echoes across states
The Centres Startup India campaign has started two important trends ? it catalysed states to nurture startups and to also focus on deep science and innovation-led startups.
- The move by the Department of Science and Technology (DST) and the Biotech Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) to set up high-end shared labs is finding many takers.
- Setting up independent, empowered entities like Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) and BIRAC, headed by CEOs, too, is becoming popular.
- Poyni Bhat, CEO, SINE, an incubator at IITBombay, conducts startup challenges to solve problems flagged by government.
- Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) With a Rs 500 crore corpus, AIM, under NITI Aayog , is headed by a nonbureaucrat CEO; funding is open to private and government outfits and programmes are monitored real time on a digital dashboard.
- BIRAC Biotech Industry Research Assistance Council or BIRAC was created in 2012 to support India’s biotech startups and boost industry-academia ties.
- States’ Action Proactive states: Many states like Telangana, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Kerala, Goa, Chhattisgarh are setting up innovation cells to bring focus and thrust.