STPI Sets Up State-of-The-Art Incubation Facility in Gurugram To Promote Entrepreneurship in Blockchain Technology

Mr. S. Krishnan, Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology Secretary inaugerating APIARY COE Incubation Facility

The facility was inaugurated by Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology Secretary Shri S. Krishnan

Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) has marked a significant milestone as the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY) Secretary Shri S. Krishnan inaugurated a state-of-the-art incubation facility of the Apiary Center of Entrepreneurship (CoE) at STPI-Gurugram. This momentous occasion was attended by Shri Sushil Pal, Joint Secretary, MeitY; Shri Pankaj Thakar, Chief Mentor, Shri Arvind Kumar, Director General, STPI; Shri Devesh Tyagi, Senior Director, STPI and Dr. Rajneesh Agrawal, Director, STPI-Gurugram.

Apiary is one of the CoEs of STPI which is focused on Blockchain Technology and is set up in collaboration with MeitY, STPI, Govt. of Haryana, Padup Ventures, IBM, Intel, GBA, and FITT. This CoE is a first-of-its-kind initiative to identify and support promising startups and promote entrepreneurship in the field of Blockchain Technology. It has a fully furnished incubation infrastructure of 7,000 sq. ft. equipped with 80 plug-n-play seats, conference rooms, and an auditorium. It targets to incubate an overall 100 startups in a period of 5 years.

 

During the inauguration, Shri S. Krishnan took a walk-through of the Apiary incubation facility and interacted with the young entrepreneurs.

“Meeting the young entrepreneurs was quite an enriching experience. The way these entrepreneurs have addressed real-world problems using cutting-edge technology is really commendable. These entrepreneurs aren’t confined to national boundaries and this quality distinguishes them from others. In the last three decades, the way we have used technology is the key benchmark for our country’s exponential growth,” said Shri S. Krishnan, Secretary, MeitY.

Shri Sushil Pal, Joint Secretary, MeitY, said, “Blockchain technology can be sustainable for our economy. It can be used right from supply chain to waste management. It has the potential to become an enabler in sustainable growth.”

Shri Arvind Kumar, Director General, STPI said, “Apiary CoE's incubation facility will bring a new revolution in the technology sector. Blockchain technology has a lot of potential and is considered to be the biggest invention since the internet. This incubation facility at Apiary CoE is a stepping stone towards India’s digital transformation.”

The inauguration was preceded by a conference on Sustainable Development Goals Thru Web 3.0, under which two sessions “Sustainable Development Goals With Web 3.0: Challenges and Opportunities” and “Business Transformation with Web 3.0” were organised. The speakers Shri Pankaj Thakar, Chief Mentor Apiary CoE & Founder PadUp Ventures; Shri Subodh Sachan, Director (Startup & Innovation); STPI Shri Amit Jindal, Mentor Apiary CoE & President Government Blockchain Association (NCR); Smt Anshu Bhartia, Ex-CEO UnLtd India Social Incubator and Shri Avneesh Saksena Management Consultant, Mentor and CEO & Executive Coach shared insights with young entrepreneurs in the audience.

About STPI Apiary COE

Apiary has been set up at STPI, Gurugram to offer a substantial opportunity to innovative start-ups working in this technology to address issues that necessitate the usage of Blockchain for the establishment of trust in a decentralized manner and other purposes. Apiary CoE provides comprehensive support to startups (in the form of a dedicated Blockchain platform, access to Technocrats, mentorship, mentoring programs, VC funding, etc., and collaboration with all ecosystem players) with the ultimate objective of making India a world leader in technology space and creating a pipeline of future jobs-creating businesses.

STPI Selects 40 Indian Startups for US Exposure Under their "Building the Next Unicorn" Initiative

A report “Start-Up Ecosystem Beyond Tier 1 cities”, prepared by STPI, was launched by hon’ble Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw.

Shri Ashwini Vaishnaw, Hon'ble Minister of Railways, Communications, Electronics and IT, Government of India today inaugurated the National Conclave of "Building The Next Unicorn", a joint start-up initiative of Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) and Electronics and Computer Software Export Promotion Council (ESC) here. Under this program, 40 startups were selected for “Mission to USA”, where they will be provided with an opportunity to visit the USA, coinciding with a leading Tech Event, for exposure to the world’s largest market for tech-based products and services.

The selected startups will also get an opportunity to interact with investors and venture capitalists in and around San Francisco, USA. The ESC-STPI initiative aims to not only support Indian tech startups but also enable them to compete on the global stage with the crème de la crème of international startup firms.

Speaking on the occasion Shri Ashwini Vaishnaw, Hon'ble Minister of Railways, Communications, Electronics and IT, Government of India, inspired the attendees of the event with his visionary thought leadership and said, “With various government initiatives and support, the start-up culture in India is witnessing a paradigm shift. Indian start-up ecosystem has now become a technology consumer to a technology producer. Change in momentum has been witnessed in various sectors in our country. There is a manufacturing growth across sectors and job creation in the digital economy is seeing an upward trend.”

He also highlighted that “55 lakh direct jobs have been created in IT/ITES sector, 30 lakh in electronics manufacturing & 8 lakh in start-ups. By 2024, the government is planning to provide 1 crore job opportunities.”

STPI Director General, Shri Arvind Kumar, said, “The agility with which government and STPI are working to break the silos and creating an institutional mechanism to support startups pan India through its CoEs and NGIS schemes is commendable. The next great story will be written in these non-metropolitan cities, and it is our solemn duty to provide promising entrepreneurs with the tools and skillsets to excel and achieve their greatest potential. STPI is transforming the start-up ecosystem in the country with its 63 centres, out of which, 53 centres are in tier 2 & tier 3 cities for nurturing ideas and providing technical support.”

The event also witnessed the launch of a special report “Start-Up Ecosystem Beyond Tier 1 cities”. The report is a part of the STPI Knowledge-Up Series and will be an apparatus for transforming India into a new hub for innovation and entrepreneurship.

Shri Gurmeet Singh, Executive Director, of the Electronics and Computer Software Export Promotion Council, in his welcome address said, “We aim to identify and empower promising start-ups from the tech space in India and connect them to the best industries so that they can reach global markets. Our journey started with support from the Ministry of Commerce and Industry and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology. This helped us build a three-tier model comprising State conclaves, National conclaves and Internationals conclaves. We endeavoured to go beyond metropolitan cities and cover the length and breadth of the country to identify 700 start-ups. After due diligence, 300 start-ups were selected for the State conclave, while 115 start-ups would be selected for National conclave and 40 start-ups will be selected for global markets exposure in the US and further empowered with American investors and technologies."

SucSEED Indovation Gaming Fund Invests in Two Gaming Startups from STPI IMAGE CoE Gaming Cohort

SucSEED Indovation Fund and STPI IMAGE CoE collaborate to support the gaming cohorts

Gaming Fund under the umbrella of Hyderabad headquartered SucSEED Indovation Fund continues to work with various partners to discover and support gaming start-ups with seed funding and organize mentorship support from successful Gaming Founders & experienced Influencers.

SucSEED Indovation Fund and STPI led IMAGE CoE had announced their collaboration earlier to aid the gaming startup ecosystem. Gaming startups would be incubated with STPI IMAGE COE and SucSEED Innovation Fund would invest in the select Gaming Startups from the cohort. Up to $100,000 in funding will be offered for early-stage product development. Several successful Gaming Founders have joined the SucSEED Indovation Fund to create a Gaming Sub-Fund for this purpose and they bring the immense experience as value-add alongside their capital. United Gamers Hideout (UGH) ESports and Stareout games are the two such startups from Cohort-1 that have received funding from SucSEED Indovation Gaming Fund through this partnership.

UGH creates innovative esports IPs that enables professional gaming in India. Unlike other esports leagues, UGH offers a unique dual system of talent hunt feeding into a franchise style league. Providing a platform for esports teams from around the world to scout players for professional contracts to represent them in our new franchised league. UGH has already established a strong event roadmap for the next two years including tournament licenses and strategic partnerships.

United Gamers Hideout was established in September 2019 by Abhisek Moharana with the vision to create the path for millions of aspiring players to play professionally and represent Indian at global level.

Abhisek Moharana, Founder and CEO at United Gamers Hideout said, “In spite of the pandemic we have seen a huge growth in professional gaming in India. UGH is filling the gap in the market with regards to upskilling the aspiring gamers and creating the high quality content the esports community craves for”. He further added that “The seed funding we raised from SucSEED Indovation and such established Gaming Angel Investors will help us in hiring the best talent and for accelerating our journey to create the biggest esports IP of India”.

Stareout games is a hyper casual game studio. Unlike other game studios, Stareout takes a regional content approach for giving a more immersive gaming experience for users. During the past 6 months,

Stareout was able to launch and attract over 100k organic users across their games.

Vamsi Raju, Founder and CEO at Stareout games said, “Hyper Casual gaming is a low commitment and quick stress relief alternative for long form entertainment. We are building gaming experiences that are tailored to the desi audience and are worth playing”. He further added that “The seed fund raised from SucSEED Indovation will help us prove the product market fit for regional based games which people can play in their local languages, targeting tier 2 and tier 3 cities primarily. We will be working on creating new and unique user acquisition strategies to get users in India at the lowest possible cost.”

Founded in 2019, Stareout Games is a gaming consultancy company catering to global publishers and game studios. Over the years with the experiences of building and scaling hyper casual games across various markets & considering the rapid growth in Indian markets, Stareout Games has pivoted the business model and started launching under our own banner.

Vikrant Varshney, Co-Founder & Managing Partner of SucSEED Indovation Fund, said “The global gaming market was valued at USD 173.70 billion in 2020, and it is expected to reach a value of USD 314.40 billion by 2026, registering a CAGR of 9.64% over 2021-2026. We believe that this relationship will increase our footprint & exposure in the gaming community by assisting and aiding these early stage startups in their growth and development, as the gaming sector has a high potential.”

Sridhar Muppidi, Founder of PurpleTalk and of YesGnome, one of the largest game development and publishing companies in India, who is one of the key stakeholders in the SucSEED Indovation Gaming Sub-Fund; said: "India, with its immense talent pool, can potentially grab a sizable chunk of the $100B global gaming industry. However, there aren't enough companies going after this opportunity, so some of us in the industry figured the best way to accelerate this is by investing at a pre-seed stage in a large number of gaming entrepreneurs. To achieve this, most of the top gaming enterprises and companies in India have come together to launch this Gaming fund with SucSEED."

SucSEED Indovation Fund is a SEBI-registered Cat-I AIF-VC Fund-Angel Fund that focuses on early-stage start-ups involved in addressing mass-market problems with the help of deep-tech breakthroughs. Their primary funding focus is on Seed to Growth and Pre-Series A-stage companies. The Fund's General partners have a combined expertise of more than 100 years in Technology, Venture Capital, and the startup ecosystem, and have invested in more than 70 companies already and have successful exits to their credit.

IMAGE Center of Entrepreneurship  is an initiative by Software Tech Parks of India (STPI) in conjunction with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and the Government Of Telangana. The IMAGE CoE Accelerator Program is a one-of-a-kind program that provides mentorship, office space, seed funding, and other incentives to entrepreneurs in the gaming, computer vision, artificial intelligence, and VFX industries. IMAGE CoE Accelerator Program is currently running its pilot cohorts and has started registrations for the next cohort.

Snapper Future Tech Recognized as Promising Blockchain Start-up of India by MeitY

The Software Technology Parks of India (STPI), an autonomous society under the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY), launched 'Apiary' - a new and innovative Centre of Excellence (CoE) in Gurugram that will look into the fast-growing blockchain technology in the country. This incubation center, that partners with promising start-ups in the field of blockchain technology in India, has recognized Snapper Future Tech, a global services and technology products company leading digital transformation for enterprises using blockchain, as one among 10 promising blockchain start-ups of India.

Darshana Jain, Partner & CEO, Snapper Future Tech

"India has been at the forefront of digital transformation and its National Blockchain Strategy is a testament to that. Through Apiary, we can transform the education sector and I look forward to bringing our credential Issuing and Verification blockchain platform to all universities. Niche start-ups like ours are at the forefront of blockchain R&D, technology, and product innovations. We can together put India on the world map as a pioneer of this disruptive technology," said Darshana Jain, Partner & CEO, Snapper Future Tech.

The inaugural event for the CoE, that was held virtually on March 23, 2021, detailed the kind of work 'Apiary' will undertake to take forward the implementation of blockchain technology in India amid the presence of some of India's leading blockchain technology stalwarts. As a part of Apiary, Snapper Future Tech will now have access to the 80-seat co-working space and dedicated blockchain platform. Apart from physical infrastructure, the Centre will have the access to mentorship programs and VC funding.

The CoE was inaugurated by Mr. Ajay Prakash Sawhney, Secretary, MeitY in the presence of eminent personalities Ms. Jyoti Arora, Special Secretary & Financial Adviser - MeitY, Mr. Saurabh Gaur, Joint Secretary - MeitY, Mr. Vineet Garg (IAS), Principal Secretary - DITECH, Dr. Anil Wali, MD- FITT, and Mr. Pankaj Thakar, Chief Mentor of Apiary CoE & Founder - Padup Ventures.

"It is an honor to be recognized for our work in the area of blockchain technology by MeitY and STPI. We are delighted to be part of such an innovative initiative like Apiary", said Naresh Jain, COO & Co-founder Snapper Future Tech.

A Centre of Excellence (CoE) is a domain-specific specialized incubation facility for start-ups in the area of emerging technologies where the highest-standards and best-practices in terms of infrastructure, technology, leadership, mentoring, training, research & development, funding, networking for the given focus area is made available to the participating companies.

About Snapper Future Tech (SFT)

Snapper Future Tech is a global services & technology products company, leading digital transformation for enterprises using blockchain. It offers services in Blockchain application development, training & consulting and an innovative suite of specialized products for e-Governance, Financial Services, Insurance, Sustainable Supply Chain & Healthcare.

Established in 2017 in Pune, Snapper Future Tech has raised Pre-Seed and Seed rounds through Enemtech Capital and strategic investors globally. A Hyperledger Certified Service Provider (HCSP) & Training partner (HTP), the company participates in open-source initiatives across the globe & has robust technological alliances & partnerships with Hyperledger, Oracle, Amazon Web Services, IBM, Trust over IP & Sovrin. 

STPI to Launch VC Fund to Support Start-Ups, Entrepreneurs in Tier-II and Tier-III Cities

Software Technology Parks of India (STPI), which is under Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), will be launching a Venture Capital fund to support startups & entrepreneurs from the tier II and III cities to launch new technology products, said a recent report by Business Standard.

STPI is planning to rope in a financial institution/fund manager to create a venture fund of Rs 120 crore for investing and managing seed funds in startups under Next Generation Incubation Scheme(NGIS). Under this scheme, support around 300 start-ups for the next three years will be provided by offering Rs 25 lakh risk capital and Rs 10,000 internship per startup.

Omkar Rai, Director General, of STPI said that one of the prime focus of STPI is to disperse the industry to Tier-II and III cities and to develop & nurture the eco-system for supporting startups & MSMEs.

To recall, in August Minister for Electronics and Information Technology Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad had launched “Chunauti”-- Next Generation Startup Challenge Contest to further boost startups and software products with special focus on Tier-II towns of India. The government has earmarked a budget of Rs. 95.03 Crore over a period of three years for this programme. It aims to identify around 300 startups working in identified areas and provide them seed fund of upto Rs. 25 Lakh and other facilities.

STPI has also launched six centers of excellence (CoEs) in emerging technologies and 10-15 more CoEs are in pipeline.These CoEs will focus on new age technologies including artificial intelligence, machine learning, data analytics, autonomous connected electric shared (ACES) mobility, block chain, VR/AR, fintech, medtech, AgriTech among others. Through these centers, STPI shall act as single-window facilitation centres to extend requisite lab support, funding and mentoring to startups.

In July, STPI has launched Apiary, a Centre of Excellence (CoE) in blockchain technology at STPI Incubation Centre, Gurugram.

Start-up Challenge Contest 'Chunauti' Launched by IT Minister to Identify 300 Startups and Seed Fund of upto ₹25 Lakh

• IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad Launches “Chunauti”- Next Generation Start-up Challenge Contest
• The programme aims to identify around 300 startups working in identified areas and provide them seed fund of upto Rs. 25 Lakh and other facilities
• Lays Foundation of IT Capacity Building Center of NIELIT in Muzaffarpur in Bihar.
• Shri Prasad urged the young, talented innovators of India to come forward and avail benefits of Chunauti challenge and create new software products and apps

Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad today launched “Chunauti”- Next Generation Startup Challenge Contest to further boost startups and software products with special focus on Tier-II towns of India. The government has earmarked a budget of Rs. 95.03 Crore over a period of three years for this programme. It aims to identify around 300 startups working in identified areas and provide them seed fund of upto Rs. 25 Lakh and other facilities.

Under this challenge the Ministry of Electronics and IT will invite startups in the following areas of work:

1. Edu-Tech, Agri-Tech & Fin-Tech Solutions for masses
2. Supply Chain, Logistics & Transportation Management
3. Infrastructure & Remote monitoring
4. Medical Healthcare, Diagnostic, Preventive & Psychological Care
5. Jobs & Skilling, Linguistic tools & technologies

The startups selected through Chunauti will be provided various support from the Government through Software Technology Parks of India centers across India. They will get incubation facilities, mentorship, security testing facilities, access to venture capitalist funding, industry connect as well as advisories in legal, Human Resource (HR), IPR and Patent matters. Besides seed fund of upto Rs. 25 Lakh, the startups will also be provided cloud credits from leading cloud service providers. Start-ups who are in the ideation stage may be selected under the pre-incubation programme & mentored for up-to six months to evolve their business plan & solution around the proposed idea. Each intern (start-up under pre-incubation) will be paid Rs. 10,000/- per month upto a period of 6 months.

 Startups can apply by visiting the website of STPI or by clicking at the link https://innovate.stpinext.in/

Union Minister also laid foundation stone of the digital training and skilling center of National Institute of Electronics and Information Technology (NIELIT) at Muzaffarpur in Bihar. This center will be developed by Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India at a cost of Rs. 9.17 Crore. The government of Bihar has allocated one acre of land for this institution. This center will be equipped with the state of the art training facility with a digital laboratory. Different courses such as O level, CCC, BCC, Programming and multimedia training will be offered from this center.

Speaking at a virtual event in presence of Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar, Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said, “I urge the young, talented innovators of India to come forward and avail benefits of Chunauti challenge of Government and create new software products and app. This launch is a bold initiative under the clarion call for Aatma Nirbhar Bharat given by Prime Minister Narendra Modi”.

MeitY, STPI Launches Blockchain CoE in Gurugram, Targets Incubating 100 startups in 5 Yrs

Yesterday, Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) has launched Apiary, a Centre of Excellence (CoE) in blockchain technology at STPI Incubation Centre, Gurugram.

STPI Apiary is launched in association with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Haryana Government, Government Blockchain Association, IBM and Intel. Apiary has also tied up with top tier academic institutions including Foundation for Innovation and Technology Transfer (FITT- IIT Delhi) Sonepat Campus.

The objectives of opening this CoE is to boost start-ups in the field of Blockchain Technology and to contribute to “Make-in-India” & “Digital India” programmes of Govt. of India by reducing imports of such services.

Apiary aims to encourage R&D, innovation, Entrepreneurship in the Blockchain Technology in India by providing physical infrastructure and support services for prototyping, developing, testing & marketing.

Targeting 100 start-ups in the next five years, the Apiary CoE, which have 80-seater state-of-the-art incubation and IBM platform, will incubate start-up units to create innovative solutions to meet the existing and emerging needs of sector; to provide business and technological mentorship & guidance in the domain; to provide networking services linking up with funding sources; to enable the creation of IPs domestically.

The Coe has also partnered with Venture Funding Agencies inlcuding Indian Angel Network, Vinners Angel Group, Padup Syndicate and Venture Catalyst.

STPI Apiary is now inviting applications from the Startups/ Entrepreneurs for Idea challenge Program in Blockchain Technology domain. The theme of Idea Challenge Programme is “AATMANIRBHAR”. The Start-ups are expected to solve the problems in the following domains using Blockchain Technology.

• Supply Chain
• Agriculture
• Finance
• E-Governance use cases pertaining to Land Records, Public Health, Labour, Service Record, Pension Delivery and Law Enforcement & Evidence Management.

The last date to apply is August 14th, 2020.

STPI-Registered Units Clock Rs 46,556 Cr worth of Software Exports during Lockdown period

The value of software exports by units registered under STPI crossed the Rs 46,550-crore mark during the coronavirus lockdown, and timely provisioning of business continuity plans and permissions kept operational impact to minimum, a top official has said.

During the period, Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) saw 253 new unit registrations and renewals, STPI Director General Omkar Rai told PTI.

The exports clocked by STP-registered units stood at Rs 4,21,103 crore during 2018-19, and the 2019-20 figure, which is under compilation, is likely to be higher by 5-6 per cent since the lockdown came in at the tail end of the financial year.

"We have compiled data for the lockdown period, which shows that total value of software exports certified by STPI during the lockdown period beginning March 24 was about Rs 46,556 crore," he said.

STPI, is an autonomous society set up by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology in 1991, with the objective of encouraging, promoting and boosting the software exports from India.

With a mandate to promote software and electronic hardware exports from the country by implementing Software Technology Park (STP) and Electronic Hardware Technology Park (EHTP) schemes, STPI focuses on building an enabling ecosystem to provide single window clearance services, reliable internet connectivity, incubation facilities and other infrastructure services to encourage software exports from the country.

Asked about the business outlook for software exports during the ongoing financial year, Rai said exports had continued even during the lockdown period.

"Companies had triggered business continuity plans and work-from-home was adopted on a wide scale. We issued a notification as early as March 11 enabling work-from-home provisions for STP-registered units. DoT (Department of Telecommunications) also relaxed other service provider (OSP) norms... Most state governments facilitated uninterrupted functioning of the IT industry, by issuing timely permissions for critical work," he said.

So, impact on the IT industry was more about effect on export destinations like Europe and the US that faced difficulties due to the coronavirus pandemic, even as supply-side constraints were minimal and Indian IT companies continued to deliver export service through the lockdown period, he said.

"The total new registrations and renewals were at 253... these units have given export projections of Rs 68,477 crore for next 3-5 years, and 76,000 potential employment generation," he said.

STPI's offices continued to function during the lockdown period and online facilities were made available to ensure IT units do not face difficulties.

The impact was on the customer side and not to do with supply side constraints, he added. PTI MBI

Software Technology Parks of India Commemorates 29th Foundation Day

Software Technology Parks of India (STPI), an autonomous society under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), commemorated its 29th Foundation Day on Friday, June 5th 2020. On the occasion a day-long webinar witnessed live streaming of sessions on three topics viz. 'Role of Government in Driving Innovation & Product Development', 'Rechristening the Narratives of Indian IT Industry' and 'India Ahead with Transformational Ideas, Disruptive Innovations and Pool of Talent'. Experts and thought leaders from government, industry, academia and industry associations deliberated and exchanged their ideas.

Shri Achyuta Samanta, MP and Founder of KIIT University congratulated STPI on its 29th Foundation Day and said, "STPI has been the beacon of Indian IT industry and has become its backbone for growth."

In the inaugural address, Shri Ajay Prakash Sawhney, Secretary, MeitY, reminisced the STPI journey of three decades. He said, "STPI is designed to succeed and designed to help the industry succeed, both of which go hand in hand. STPI has been our partner in implementing many exciting schemes we are recently brought out. It has been instrumental in aiding the growth of Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry not only in cities but also in rural hinterlands. E-governance and digital expansion in sectors such as health, agriculture, education present huge opportunities for India. It is time to reimaging the role of STPI for the coming decade."

Underlining the glorious journey of STPI and its contribution in Indian economy Dr. Omkar Rai, DG, STPI said, "As a policy enabler, STPI has been bringing out futuristic schemes apropos the technological advancements. Having a vision for transforming India into a product nation, STPI has been activating multiple initiatives under "National Policy on Software Products" approved by Government of India recently. To enable the Indian IT industry to face the challenges of Industry 4.0 and build India's leadership in emerging technology areas like IoT, Blockchain, Artificial Intelligence, Augmented & Virtual Reality, FinTech, Medical Electronics, Health Informatics, Gaming & Animation, Machine Learning, Data Science & Analytics, Cyber Security, Chip Designing, ESDM etc."

Established on the 5th June 1991, Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) has since emerged as one of the growth driver of Indian IT/ITeS/ESDM industry. With a mandate to promote software and electronic hardware exports from the country by implementing Software Technology Park (STP) & Electronic Hardware Technology Park (EHTP) Schemes, STPI pioneered the ease of doing business for policy governance in India by building a robust-ecosystem to provide single window clearance services, world-class internet connectivity, state-of-the-art incubation facilities and other infrastructure services to encourage, promote and boost software exports.

"STPI is the only organisation that hasn't lost its purpose in three decades. STPI has never stopped reinventing itself in last 30 years. The essence of the leaders of STPI with unwavering commitment to the evolution of IT industry is notable," underscores Shri Subroto Bagchi, Chairman, Odisha Skill Development Authority.

"Govt. has helped startups take on global giants, get funding from not only domestic sources but also from abroad & drive partnerships with global giants to bring best products to market," asserted Dr. Rajendra Kumar, Addl. Secy, GoI, MeitY.

Ms. Debjani Ghosh, President, NASSCOM accentuates, "STPI is not just a partner but it has become an integral part of the IT industry, thank you very much for what you do."

Today, the US$191 billion IT industry, comprising around 18,000-plus firms that directly employ 4.36 million strong workforce, that contributes 8.0% of GDP is a testimony to the STPI's resolute performance in transforming Indian IT industry into global outsourcing destination for software exports.

At $56 Mn, STPI to Open 28 CoEs in Emerging Tech including AI, IoT, Automotive Electronics

Bengaluru, Aug 21 (PTI) The Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) is in the process of opening 28 centres of excellence (CoE) in emerging technologies at an investment of over Rs 400 crore ( ~ US$ 56 million), its director-general Omkar Rai said on Wednesday.

Five CoEs are already functioning and all 28 of them would be operational in two years, he said in an address to the 15th India Innovation Summit 2019 organised here by the Confederation of Indian Industry, according to a CII release.

Emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IOT), medical electronics, IOT in agriculture and automotive electronics would be the focus of the CoEs, the release quoted him as saying.

He said India's IT services industry currently stands at US $177 billion with exports amounting to US $136 billion. "It is the intention of the government of India to transform the country from an IT services industry to a product nation," Rai said.

The National Software Product Policy 2019 approved by the Union Cabinet aims to capitalise on the strength of Indias IT industry in order to make the country a software product nation, according to him.

Currently, the global software product industry stands at USD 511 billion out of which India's share is USD 8.1 billion. The objective is to take this share of India to US $80-90 billion by 2025, the release quoted him as saying.

Additional chief secretary, department of IT, BT and S&T, government of Karnataka, E V Ramana Reddy said hi department was in the process of drafting a new policy on innovation and technology with the view to addressing new-age challenges in regulation for innovation.

"We are considering innovative concepts such as regulatory sandboxes to ensure that adequate legal framework for innovation is available," Reddy said. PTI RS NVG

STPI to Open Incubation Centre in Coimbatore for IT Startups, Entrepreneurs

Chennai, Aug 20 (PTI): Aimed at benefiting then industry-academia partnership, the Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) set up by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology on Tuesday said it was establishing an incubation centre that would entail investments of Rs 40 crore, a top official said.

To set up the STPI-IT (information technology) incubation centre at the Government College of Technology, Coimbatore, the government has alloted 3-acres of land, STPI director-general Omkar Rai said here.

"The investments expected will be Rs 40 crore. This will cater to the needs of IT, IT-enabled services. It will also give a boost to entrepreneurship and exports from the region," he told reporters here.

For setting up the incubation centre, a memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed in the presence of secretary to department of higher education Mangat Ram Sharam and Omkar Rai. The centre would facilitate and support the entrepreneurs of the state to explore global opportunity in the IT and IT-enabled services.

To recall, in August last year STPI had launched Incubation centre and a Fab Lab 'STPI ELITE' for electronics and IT startups in Orissa state. The centre received investment of approximate Rs. 50 Crores.

"STPI will create a state-of-the-art incubation centre for providing raw and plug-in-play incubation facility to the industry especially for start-ups and entrepreneurs," he said.

The initiative would further strengthen the industry-academia relationship and also offer a platform for 'Future-Ready Technology', especially in Coimbatore.

With the facility, the employability skills can be achieved by transforming graduates into professionals by conducting special trainings in block chain, artificial intelligence, machine learning and internet of things, he said. PTI VIJ
NVG

India to Create 28 CoE to Promote AI, Blockchain and other Emerging Technologies

Software Technology Parks of India (STPI), under the Indian Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India, is set to create 28 Centres of Excellence (CoE) across the country in emerging fields like Internet of Things (IoT), artificial intelligence (AI), cloud, augmented reality & virtual reality (AR & VR), blockchain and others.

This announcement was by STPI director, Sanjay Gupta, at recent event.

The upcoming CoE will work in collaboration with stakeholders, state governments, academia, industry and industry mentorship to provide a platform for startups and budding entrepreneurs across the country.

Just a few days back, STPI inked a MoU with US-based Fab Foundation for setting up the Fab Lab in Bhubaneswar, Orissa.

A Centre of Excellence (CoE) -- according to STPI -- is a domain-specific specialized incubation facility for start-ups in the area of emerging technologies where the highest-standards and best-practices in terms of infrastructure, technology, leadership, mentoring, training, research & development, funding, networking for the given focus area is made available.

STPI is responsible for setting up IoT OpenLab at Bengaluru, Electropreneur Park ESDM Incubation Centre at Bhubaneshwar and FinTech at Chennai.

In August last year, STPI had unveiled a new incubation centre as well as a Fab-Lab called 'STPI ELITE' for electronics and IT startups in Orissa state, located at Gothapatna locality in Bhubaneswar city.

Lot of CoEs have been set up in last couple of years including NASSCOM IoT-CoE. In January, Kerala Startup Mission, the nodal agency of the Kerala state government for technical entrepreneurship, partnered with Unity Technologies, a US-based game development company, to launch a CoE for AR/VR and gaming, in order to help the startup culture boom in the gaming and AR & VR sectors.

Last October, NASSCOM in collaboration with the Haryana government, had launched CoE for IoT at Gurugram.

Via ~ ElectronicsB2B

New Incubation Centre and Fab Lab 'STPI ELITE' Launches in Orissa for IT, Electronics Startups

The Software Technology Park of India (STPI), an organization under Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Government of India, has inaugurated a new incubation centre for electronics and IT startups in Orissa state.

The state of the art new facility named as "STPI ELITE" is located at Gothapatna locality in Bhubaneswar City and was inaugurated on Saturday by Mr.Ravi Shankar Prasad, Minister for MeitY, and Mr Dharmendra Pradhan, Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas and Skill Development & Entrepreneurship.

Sprawling across around 3 acres of land at IDCO Knowledge Zone, Gothapatna with investment of approximate Rs. 50 Crores, the STPI ELITE will also house STPI’s Fabrication Lab (Fab Lab) and ESDM Incubation, data centre in collaboration with Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) of USA, ESDM Incubation & Data centre to cater the need of the IT, ITES and ESDM (Electronic System Design & Manufacturing) industries.

The facility can accommodate more than 100 entrepreneurs and offers many facilities beyond plug and play models, which are new in the state.

STPI ELITE's Incubation Program will offer other modern facilities like Network Operation Centre, High Speed Data Communication, Cloud services, Plug & Play, semi furnished & Co-working IT space, Convention Hall, Conference, My Space, Language Lab, Cafeteria, Business Lounge, Bank/ATM, Amphitheatre & modern Building Management& other common Services. Recently STPI ELITE has been included in the Rental Subsidy Scheme of Government of Odisha under which the Incubatees can avail the facility at an affordable cost and ensure a sustainable growth.

It will also offer a strong platform to leverage STPI’s rich experience in technology implementation, creation of incubation, Industry facilitation, linking to Industries & Industrial Mentorship and facilitate smooth flow of knowledge and sharing of infrastructure between STPI Incubates/IT/ITES/ESDM start-ups for to promote entrepreneurship & innovation.

The Integrated facilities will work as an Innovation Hub which would encourage Innovation, IPR creation, Product Development and offer a vibrant ecosystem for building a maker culture among the young techno-entrepreneurs, Start-ups and boost the IT exports from the region.

In last five years gone by, STPI had made many announcements for promoting electronics and IT startups in India and back in 2015, STPI made Rs.22 crore partnership with India Electronics and Semiconductor Association (IESA) to set up an ‘Electropreneur Park’, aimed at supporting 50 startups working on electronics product designing and development over the next five years.

In August 2016, STPI did open an Electropreneur Park at University of Delhi, South Campus with an aim to incubate 50 early stage start-ups and create at least 5 global companies over a period of 5 years.

Source - Business Standard | Orrisa Diary

8 Startups' Expectations From Budget 2015-16

With the budget announcement for the year 2015-2016 around the corner, all eyes are set on Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and what all he has in store for the citizens, companies of the country. Every industry and citizen of India expects something in the budget which will help them/him grow strong financially.  Whether the designer briefcase is able to stand on their expectations is something which we will have to wait and watch. The new government’s first budget last year gave a ray of hope to all young entrepreneurs as it announced a sum of Rs. 10,000 crore to boost capital growth in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and startups in the country. What magic does the designer briefcase unfolds this year for the startups can only be seen on 28th February.

We at IndianWeb2 have put together a list of top 8 things the startup sector can expect in this year's budget.

1. Making starting up easier - The current procedure for starting a business requires the entrepreneur to run from corner to corner, office to office in order to get all the approvals, clearances and licenses for his new venture.The sector has been long demanding the setting up of one single window for all these approvals, so that the entrepreneurs can concentrate more on his business and less in running around.The sector hopes to get its long withstanding demand of a single window getting fulfilled in this year's budget.Young Entrepreneurs were quite encouraged when the Ministry of Entrepreneurship was set and there's for sure a need for someone to give this idea a push. In India there are about twelve different ministries operating their own startup and skill development programmes and there is an extremely urgent need to bring all these programmes, schemes etc. together so that they can prove to be effective for the industry.


2. Capital problem - While things have surely changed for good, entrepreneurs still face a hard time raising money for their new venture.The startup sector expects the budget 2015 to make capital more accessible and affordable for new businesses.Angel and venture investments needs to be encouraged in the country and there's an urgent need to sort out the issues surrounding the angel tax.Currently, the venture capital firms have to deal with three set of regulations for their each and every move.These are- CBDT Guidelines for Venture Capital Companies, 1995, Guidelines for Overseas Venture Capital Investments issued by the Department of Economic Affairs of Ministry of Finance in the year 1995 and Security and Exchange Board of India( SEBI)  1996.Each of these above said regulations come with their own set of rules and regulations that make it very difficult for a venture capital to follow. For an investor, time is money and the Venture Capital investors end up wasting a lot of their time fulfilling each and every rule and regulations set by these above said three regulations. The startups would be hugely benefited if the government is able to consolidate all these three regulations into one single regulation of SEBI.


3. Growth Scale - One of the primary concerns that startups have nowadays is the Minimum Alternate Tax (MAT). According to the current directions, an unlisted private company needs to pay MAT at 18.5% if the company is making a substantial amount of income under the Information and technology act, but  may not be showing profits on paper when income is calculated according to the rules under the Companies Act. For Startups this becomes a major hurdle as they have to pay a huge chunk of their incomes in taxes when they could have used the money to expand their businesses. Further, there are startups who are not making any profit at the moment but end up incurring loses due to taxes that they have to pay. This ends up affecting the cash flow of these startups.The budget this year can help such startups by making special provision of MAT for startups. The government can make special provisions where the startups don't have to pay MAT for an initial period of five years or make the top line 25 Crores. Such provisions will provide startups enough space for breathing to grow and set their business.


4. Thinking outside India - The Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) scheme played a major role in the initial success of India's Information and Technology industry.  The government  needs to introduce such STPI like schemes for startups in order to encourage entrepreneurs to come with more and more unique ideas and startups.The STPI scheme initially provided the new IT companies with physical spaces to work. It later went on to provide statutory support and good infrastructure facilities to technology based companies. There's an urgent need for such a scheme for all the startups (not just IT companies) and ring fence these new businesses in order to protect them from all the infrastructural and regulatory hurdles. All these schemes can also be synchronized with the Modi government's Make in India campaign.


5. Ease of Business - India as a country has a very bad image internationally when it comes to doing business in the country. All the successive governments haven't been able to much about the issue but the Narendra Modi government seems to be promising. Most of the regulations and rules that one needs to follow to run a business in this country are mainly old and obtuse. There is an urgent need to change these archaic rules according to current situations and scenarios. Manufacturing startups particularly find it very hard to survive as the powers of an inspector makes the acquiescence cost very high.Different taxes like VAT, excise, octroi and service only add up to the startup's troubles as they find it extremely difficult to come in terms with the complexities at play. This budget, the government mantra should be rules and regulations that are easy to identify and follow.


6. Ease of Exiting - If opening a business is difficult in India, it is approximately ten times more difficult to close a failed business venture. As a country India should make sure that if an entrepreneur fails in his/her venture, he is able to close his venture without much difficulties and start afresh. The existing process of exiting can be made so much easier if India's government focuses on digitizing it.In this age of technology when everything from booking tickets to  mobile recharging can be done online, the government can make similar arrangements of filling documents for a new venture. This would make the lives of new entrepreneurs so much easier as they will not have to run from pillar to pillar to get the business started.


7. Encouraging Risk Financing - There's a paradox situation at play here. Currently. the Foreign Institutional Investor (FIIs) registered with SEBI are allowed to freely invest and disinvest without taking prior approvals from FIPB/Reserve Bank of India.However, foreign based Venture Capital firms wanting to invest in startups based in India are required to take prior approval from RBI or FIPB. Same is the process when a foreign based investor is looking to sell his/her stake in a startup to a another foreign Venture Capital firm. Majority of the PE and Venture Capital firms operating in India are from foreign lands and such lengthy processes of approval makes it very unattractive for investors.


8. A detailed outline of the Rs. 10,000 crore startup fund declared in last year's budget - While the government was able to gain much appreciation about its declaration of  Rs. 10,000 crore startup fund in last year's first budget, much wasn't released about how the fund will be used by the government. According to some experts, the fund must be used for promoting financing in the form of quasi-equity, equity and various other forms of risk capital. While another school of thought believes that the money should be used for promoting entrepreneurship in universities and colleges.

8 Startups' Expectations From Budget 2015-16

With the budget announcement for the year 2015-2016 around the corner, all eyes are set on Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and what all he has in store for the citizens, companies of the country. Every industry and citizen of India expects something in the budget which will help them/him grow strong financially.  Whether the designer briefcase is able to stand on their expectations is something which we will have to wait and watch. The new government’s first budget last year gave a ray of hope to all young entrepreneurs as it announced a sum of Rs. 10,000 crore to boost capital growth in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and startups in the country. What magic does the designer briefcase unfolds this year for the startups can only be seen on 28th February.

We at IndianWeb2 have put together a list of top 8 things the startup sector can expect in this year's budget.

1. Making starting up easier - The current procedure for starting a business requires the entrepreneur to run from corner to corner, office to office in order to get all the approvals, clearances and licenses for his new venture.The sector has been long demanding the setting up of one single window for all these approvals, so that the entrepreneurs can concentrate more on his business and less in running around.The sector hopes to get its long withstanding demand of a single window getting fulfilled in this year's budget.Young Entrepreneurs were quite encouraged when the Ministry of Entrepreneurship was set and there's for sure a need for someone to give this idea a push. In India there are about twelve different ministries operating their own startup and skill development programmes and there is an extremely urgent need to bring all these programmes, schemes etc. together so that they can prove to be effective for the industry.


2. Capital problem - While things have surely changed for good, entrepreneurs still face a hard time raising money for their new venture.The startup sector expects the budget 2015 to make capital more accessible and affordable for new businesses.Angel and venture investments needs to be encouraged in the country and there's an urgent need to sort out the issues surrounding the angel tax.Currently, the venture capital firms have to deal with three set of regulations for their each and every move.These are- CBDT Guidelines for Venture Capital Companies, 1995, Guidelines for Overseas Venture Capital Investments issued by the Department of Economic Affairs of Ministry of Finance in the year 1995 and Security and Exchange Board of India( SEBI)  1996.Each of these above said regulations come with their own set of rules and regulations that make it very difficult for a venture capital to follow. For an investor, time is money and the Venture Capital investors end up wasting a lot of their time fulfilling each and every rule and regulations set by these above said three regulations. The startups would be hugely benefited if the government is able to consolidate all these three regulations into one single regulation of SEBI.


3. Growth Scale - One of the primary concerns that startups have nowadays is the Minimum Alternate Tax (MAT). According to the current directions, an unlisted private company needs to pay MAT at 18.5% if the company is making a substantial amount of income under the Information and technology act, but  may not be showing profits on paper when income is calculated according to the rules under the Companies Act. For Startups this becomes a major hurdle as they have to pay a huge chunk of their incomes in taxes when they could have used the money to expand their businesses. Further, there are startups who are not making any profit at the moment but end up incurring loses due to taxes that they have to pay. This ends up affecting the cash flow of these startups.The budget this year can help such startups by making special provision of MAT for startups. The government can make special provisions where the startups don't have to pay MAT for an initial period of five years or make the top line 25 Crores. Such provisions will provide startups enough space for breathing to grow and set their business.


4. Thinking outside India - The Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) scheme played a major role in the initial success of India's Information and Technology industry.  The government  needs to introduce such STPI like schemes for startups in order to encourage entrepreneurs to come with more and more unique ideas and startups.The STPI scheme initially provided the new IT companies with physical spaces to work. It later went on to provide statutory support and good infrastructure facilities to technology based companies. There's an urgent need for such a scheme for all the startups (not just IT companies) and ring fence these new businesses in order to protect them from all the infrastructural and regulatory hurdles. All these schemes can also be synchronized with the Modi government's Make in India campaign.


5. Ease of Business - India as a country has a very bad image internationally when it comes to doing business in the country. All the successive governments haven't been able to much about the issue but the Narendra Modi government seems to be promising. Most of the regulations and rules that one needs to follow to run a business in this country are mainly old and obtuse. There is an urgent need to change these archaic rules according to current situations and scenarios. Manufacturing startups particularly find it very hard to survive as the powers of an inspector makes the acquiescence cost very high.Different taxes like VAT, excise, octroi and service only add up to the startup's troubles as they find it extremely difficult to come in terms with the complexities at play. This budget, the government mantra should be rules and regulations that are easy to identify and follow.


6. Ease of Exiting - If opening a business is difficult in India, it is approximately ten times more difficult to close a failed business venture. As a country India should make sure that if an entrepreneur fails in his/her venture, he is able to close his venture without much difficulties and start afresh. The existing process of exiting can be made so much easier if India's government focuses on digitizing it.In this age of technology when everything from booking tickets to  mobile recharging can be done online, the government can make similar arrangements of filling documents for a new venture. This would make the lives of new entrepreneurs so much easier as they will not have to run from pillar to pillar to get the business started.


7. Encouraging Risk Financing - There's a paradox situation at play here. Currently. the Foreign Institutional Investor (FIIs) registered with SEBI are allowed to freely invest and disinvest without taking prior approvals from FIPB/Reserve Bank of India.However, foreign based Venture Capital firms wanting to invest in startups based in India are required to take prior approval from RBI or FIPB. Same is the process when a foreign based investor is looking to sell his/her stake in a startup to a another foreign Venture Capital firm. Majority of the PE and Venture Capital firms operating in India are from foreign lands and such lengthy processes of approval makes it very unattractive for investors.


8. A detailed outline of the Rs. 10,000 crore startup fund declared in last year's budget - While the government was able to gain much appreciation about its declaration of  Rs. 10,000 crore startup fund in last year's first budget, much wasn't released about how the fund will be used by the government. According to some experts, the fund must be used for promoting financing in the form of quasi-equity, equity and various other forms of risk capital. While another school of thought believes that the money should be used for promoting entrepreneurship in universities and colleges.