India's 1st Skill Varsity Rabindranath Tagore Univ launches Atal Incubation Centre

• The Centre was inaugurated by His Excellency Mr Lalji Tandon, the Honorable Governor of Madhya Pradesh
• AIC-RNTU aims to provide complete handholding support startups

Bhopal-based Rabindranath Tagore University (RNTU), which is India’s first skills university, has launched Madhya Pradesh’s first Atal Incubation Centre (AIC) within a University campus. AIC-RNTU is supported by the Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) under NITI Aayog, Government of India. It has been launched with the aim of boosting the startup ecosystem in the country by providing access to state-of-the-art-infrastructure, fund support, management support, mentorship and relevant training to budding entrepreneurs. The Centre was inaugurated by His Excellency Mr Lalji Tandon, the Honorable Governor of Madhya Pradesh.

Talking about the need for AIC-RNTU, Mr Santosh Kumar Choubey, Chancellor, RNTU, said, “Around 90% Indian startups fail within the first five years of inception. With the establishment of AIC-RNTU in Bhopal, we are looking to transform the startup ecosystem in the country by playing the role of an incubator and an accelerator, to enable the startups from ideation to growth stage. It will not only play a crucial role in developing entrepreneurial mindset among the youngsters of the region but also help in creating long term financially sustainable solutions while generating employment opportunities.” Mr. Choubey also announced corpus fund of Rupees 1 cr for seed funding of startups of the region.

The other special guests for the inauguration ceremony included Mr. Vinayak Nath (Managing Partner, Venture Catalysts), Mr. Anil Joshi (Managing Partner, Unicorn India Ventures) and Mr. V.C. Dubey (Nodal Officer, Startup & Incubation Cell, MSME Department, Madhya Pradesh). Mr. R Ramanan (Mission Director, AIM, NITI Aayog, Govt. of India) also shared his best wishes to AIC-RNTU on the occasion.

AIC-RNTU will work towards nurturing innovative startup businesses to help them become scalable and sustainable enterprises. In its role as a startup incubator and accelerator, AIC-RNTU will provide world-class incubation facilities with suitable infrastructure in terms of lab equipment and operating facilities, coupled with the availability of sectoral experts for mentoring the start-ups, business planning support, access to seed capital, industry partners, trainings and other relevant components required for encouraging innovative startups.

Through this Centre, incubation programmes will be offered for three categories - Ideate, Discover and Growth. The durations of the programmes will range from 8 to 12 months based on the category. AIC-RNTU has forged collaboration with subject matter experts, Mentors, Corporate Partners, Investment Partners and Academic partners to provide comprehensive support to the young entrepreneurs. AIC-RNTU has also build state of the art 100 plus seater co-working space. In addition to above, AIC-RNTU also offers joint Incubation program in partnership with the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai.

Adding further on the importance of AICs, Mr Choubey said, “Madhya Pradesh is the second largest Indian state and is among the fastest growing states, yet it lags behind Maharashtra, Karnataka, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh in terms of number of recognized startups. The State has a lot of potential but there is a need to establish more AICs in the tier 2 and tier 3 cities in order to provide the much needed boost to the Indian startup ecosystem.”

Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) is Government of India’s flagship initiative to promote a culture of innovation and entrepreneurship in the country. AIM’s objective is to develop new programmes and policies for fostering innovation in different sectors of the economy, provide platform and collaboration opportunities for different stakeholders, create awareness and create an umbrella structure to oversee innovation ecosystem of the country.

Rabindranath Tagore University (RNTU), formerly known as AISECT University Bhopal, was established in Raisen district of Madhya Pradesh in 2010 as India’s first skills university. In a short span of time, RNTU has established itself as the leading educational and research hub of Central India. The University seeks to provide overall cognitive development to its students by laying an equal focus on soft skills, personality grooming, entrepreneurship incubation, liberal & performing arts as well as sports and cultural activities.

MP Government to Provide Youths Startup Loans of up to ₹10 Lakhs

After putting lot of efforts bringing Madhya Pradesh (MP) into mainstream of India's startup ecosystem, the state Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said that the youths of the State will be provided loan up to Rs 10 lakhs without interest, as a seed capital for startups. Innovation Council will be formed in the state.

Changing the policy, arrangements will be made for government purchase through startups up to Rs 30 lakh without tender. Startups will be provided better environment and facilities in the State. Madhya Pradesh will be the new destination for startups in the country.

Chouhan was addressing young entrepreneurs at the Startup Conclave here on Saturday. MP had launched its start-up policy in 2016, to provide an operational fund support up to Rs 5 lakh to incubation centers to meet their recurring expenses.

The Chief Minister said that startups will be encouraged to provide opportunities to every youth of Madhya Pradesh to fulfill his ambition and give natural expression to his talents. He said that incubation centres are being made in all seven smart cities of the state. All facilities will be provided to the youth to launch startups.

It is to be noted that Madhya Pradesh government already has a Rs 100 crore venture fund for budding entrepreneurs with innovative ideas for setting up industries.

Incubation centres on PPP model will be started in selected colleges. Venture Capital Fund has been made for innovative ideas in the state. Mukhya Mantri Yuva Udyami Yojana will also be linked to this. Successful industrialists will be told to mentor incubation centres. The Chief Minister said that there are widespread possibilities for startups in fields like agriculture, tourism and transport in the state. Industrial corridor will be built near the three new Express Highways of the state including Indore-Bhopal, Chambal Expressway and Narmada Express Highway.

Chief Executive Officer, NITI Aayog, Amitabh Kant said that India's gross domestic product rate is 7.5 per cent. In the next 30 years, the target of increasing GDP growth is 9 to 10 percent. This goal would be possible only by promoting start-up.

Some of the notable startups in Madhya Pradesh are - Wittyfeed (internet media company), Bag2Bag (online hotels), RackBank (datacenter), MaalGaadi (intra-city transportation), My Sanika (cancer care society), Oye24 (online food delivery) and TukTuk (autorickshaw).

The ecosystem created in Indore for startups is commendable. A sum of Rs 10,000 crore fund has been created in the country for startups. Startups will be charged with zero percent income tax for any three years in the initial 7 years. Production from startups will be purchased for Government of India undertakings. In the last four years, 20,000 startups have begun in the country, out of which 4500 are technology startups. Total 1100 multinational companies in the country have established research and development units in the country.



Source - Daily Pioneer

Agri-Tech Startup Eggoz Raises Rs 1.2 Crores Funding from Clutch of Angel Investors

Kurawar, Madhya pradesh-based egg producer and agri-tech startup Eggoz has raised Rs 1.2 crores from clutch of angel investors including Narendra Sankar, Sunil Mishra, Vishal Sharma, Anurag Jhanwar and Mohini Jhanwar.

Founded by IIT Kharagpur alumni Abhishek Negi, Uttam Kumar, Aditya Singh and Pankaj Pandey in December 2017, Eggoz operates a network of egg poultry farm spread across Bihar and Madhya Pradesh. It is a full-stack egg producer using cutting-edge technology to produce high quality and nutrition-rich eggs. Eggoz farms are run with higher efficiency with smart technology and processes.

Eggoz runs network of multiple farms at various locations; producing predictable quality eggs. The company has total bird capacity of 1,00,000 hen with 65,000 hen operational farms and remainder under construction.

The company intends to use the capital to expand their business in states Madhya Pradesh and Bihar. The funds will also be used to build a company-owned farm in Nalanda, Bihar which will act as a model farm to attract clients, and for research and development. The company aims to scale operations to 5,00,000 hen capacity by 2020 with focus on Northern states.

Commenting on the development, Mr Abhishek Negi, Co-founder of Eggoz, said, "India has a “serious” hunger problem and ranks 100th out of 119 countries on the global hunger. Egg is a wholesome nutritious food which is available at affordable price. We saw huge gaps in the market with Southern states producing close to 70% of India’s total production. So, we started Eggoz to revolutionise egg industry and contribute in eradication of malnutrition by bringing fresh & nutrition-rich eggs to everyone. Going forward, we see a huge scope for innovation in production of raw ingredients as well as retail of eggs and processed items."

Pankaj Pandey, Co-Founder of Eggoz added, “At our current running capacity, we have a daily demand of 10MT maize and 2MT of soybean that we are currently sourcing directly from farmers and providing them higher returns than market. Going forward, we plan to adopt some villages and equip farmers with modern farming practices with the best possible guaranteed returns for their crops. Eggoz is just the beginning of a new agriculture era and we strive to take Indian agriculture to the next level.

Mr Narendra Sankar, an investor in Eggoz said, “With the continuing growth of the human population towards 9 billion by 2050, there is significant pressures to feed this growth using limited resources. Villages across India and other rapidly urbanizing economies are losing their ability to enable economic incentives, using their valuable land, to provide sustenance to the local and regional populations. Eggoz is one of the emerging class of companies that is using sensible technology to enable sustained and economical use of this land to provide the key needed nutrition for the children of the region, resulting in significant financial as well as developmental benefits.”

Notably, Before Eggoz, an another Madhya Pradesh based agriculture startup Carmel Organics had raised an undisclosed amount from Ankur Capital, in March this year. Carmel is a poducer & supplier of world class medicinal herbs, organic herbs and spices.

In February, Ankur Capital had invested in agritech startup, Agricx Lab, which has developed an AI-overlayed imaging technology for agri-produce quality assessment.

Of late, a lot of action can be seen in the field of agri-tech in India, as last month Israel's Tel Aviv University and Tata Trusts launched the Indian Centre for Agri & Allied Tech (I-CAT) that will bring Israeli know-how and innovation to the farmers of the state of Andhra Pradesh in southern India.

In the same month, government of India's policy think-tank NITI Aayog has partnered IBM to develop a crop yield prediction model using artificial intelligence (AI) to provide real time advisory to farmers in backward states of India.

Agri-Tech Startup Eggoz Raises Rs 1.2 Crores Funding from Clutch of Angel Investors

Kurawar, Madhya pradesh-based egg producer and agri-tech startup Eggoz has raised Rs 1.2 crores from clutch of angel investors including Narendra Sankar, Sunil Mishra, Vishal Sharma, Anurag Jhanwar and Mohini Jhanwar.
Founded by IIT Kharagpur alumni Abhishek Negi, Uttam Kumar, Aditya Singh and Pankaj Pandey in December 2017, Eggoz operates a network of egg poultry farm spread across Bihar and Madhya Pradesh. It is a full-stack egg producer using cutting-edge technology to produce high quality and nutrition-rich eggs. Eggoz farms are run with higher efficiency with smart technology and processes.

Eggoz runs network of multiple farms at various locations; producing predictable quality eggs. The company has total bird capacity of 1,00,000 hen with 65,000 hen operational farms and remainder under construction. 

The company intends to use the capital to expand their business in states Madhya Pradesh and Bihar. The funds will also be used to build a company-owned farm in Nalanda, Bihar which will act as a model farm to attract clients, and for research and development. The company aims to scale operations to 5,00,000 hen capacity by 2020 with focus on Northern states.

Commenting on the development, Mr Abhishek Negi, Co-founder of Eggoz, said, "India has a “serious” hunger problem and ranks 100th out of 119 countries on the global hunger. Egg is a wholesome nutritious food which is available at affordable price. We saw huge gaps in the market with Southern states producing close to 70% of India’s total production. So, we started Eggoz to revolutionise egg industry and contribute in eradication of malnutrition by bringing fresh & nutrition-rich eggs to everyone. Going forward, we see a huge scope for innovation in production of raw ingredients as well as retail of eggs and processed items."

Pankaj Pandey, Co-Founder of Eggoz added, “At our current running capacity, we have a daily demand of 10MT maize and 2MT of soybean that we are currently sourcing directly from farmers and providing them higher returns than market. Going forward, we plan to adopt some villages and equip farmers with modern farming practices with the best possible guaranteed returns for their crops. Eggoz is just the beginning of a new agriculture era and we strive to take Indian agriculture to the next level.

Mr Narendra Sankar, an investor in Eggoz said, “With the continuing growth of the human population towards 9 billion by 2050, there is significant pressures to feed this growth using limited resources. Villages across India and other rapidly urbanizing economies are losing their ability to enable economic incentives, using their valuable land, to provide sustenance to the local and regional populations. Eggoz is one of the emerging class of companies that is using sensible technology to enable sustained and economical use of this land to provide the key needed nutrition for the children of the region, resulting in significant financial as well as developmental benefits.”

Notably, Before Eggoz, an another Madhya Pradesh based agriculture startup Carmel Organics had raised an undisclosed amount from Ankur Capital, in March this year. Carmel is a poducer & supplier of world class medicinal herbs, organic herbs and spices.

In February, Ankur Capital had invested in agritech startup, Agricx Lab, which has developed an AI-overlayed imaging technology for agri-produce quality assessment.

Of late, a lot of action can be seen in the field of agri-tech in India, as last month Israel's Tel Aviv University and Tata Trusts launched the Indian Centre for Agri & Allied Tech (I-CAT) that will bring Israeli know-how and innovation to the farmers of the state of Andhra Pradesh in southern India.

In the same month, government of India's policy think-tank NITI Aayog has partnered IBM to develop a crop yield prediction model using artificial intelligence (AI) to provide real time advisory to farmers in backward states of India.

Madhya Pradesh Wants Startup Village Like Incubator

Seems like Kochi-based Startup Village in Kerala state has become a role model for all other states in India to follow. Earlier in July Andhra Pradesh announced that the state will replicate the 'Startup Village' model to bring similar incubator in the state. Now, Madhya Pradesh another such state which initiated has initiated discussions with the Kochi-based Startup Village, seeking its support and expertise in setting up a similar incubation facility in their state.

A high-level delegation led by Shri M Selvendran IAS, Managing Director of Madhya Pradesh State Electronics Development Corporation (MPSEDC) Ltd, held talks with Startup Village Chief Executive Officer Pranav Kumar Suresh and the management team at Startup Village in this regard on Thursday last week.

The delegation members checked the facilities being offered to start-ups. They also discussed the Kerala government's student entrepreneurship policy which is aimed at promoting entrepreneurship culture among youths.

"We are very impressed by Startup Village's functioning and are exploring the possibility of setting up a similar facility in Madhya Pradesh. We plan to seek support from the management and the technical team of Startup Village to devise a strategy to build a similar incubator in Madhya Pradesh," Shri Selvendran said after the visit.

Startup Village Chairman Sanjay Vijayakumar said - "It is truly a recognition for Startup Village's efforts over the last 30 months in creating an ecosystem which supports young entrepreneurs. We are in the process of bringing out a blueprint on creation of innovative ecosystems that can be adopted by states across India".

Startup Village as an incubator was founded in year 2012 with aim to to launch 1,000 technology startup in next 10 years. As of October 2013, Startup Village has incubated 450 startups.