Indian Govt to Set Up 51 Startup Incubators for Information & Communication Tech Sector

To support startups and entrepreneurs working in the information and communications technology (ICT) space, the government of India is planning to set up of 51 new startup incubators across India as part of its Technology Incubation and Development of Entrepreneurs (TIDE) 2.0 scheme, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) tweeted on Monday.

51 new state of art incubation centres to be setup pan India under #TIDE 2.0.@_DigitalIndia @stpiindia @startupindia @NICMeity @ICTIPR pic.twitter.com/fVG4oyMWkT

— Ministry of E & IT (@GoI_MeitY) June 17, 2019

"Proposals for incubation centres will be invited from organisations of higher learning and R&D organisations across India- having incubation facilities," the ministry tweeted.

Proposals for incubation centres will be invited from organisations of higher learning and R&D organisations across India- having incubation facilities.@_DigitalIndia @stpiindia @startupindia @NICMeity @ICTIPR pic.twitter.com/Lwh07ogEGi

— Ministry of E & IT (@GoI_MeitY) June 17, 2019

Initially launched in 2008, the TIDE scheme was revised in 2017, hence TIDE 2.0. The scheme aims to assist institutions of higher learning to strengthen their Technology Incubation Centers and enable young entrepreneurs to initiate technology startup companies for commercial exploitation of technologies developed by them.

The selection of upcoming 51 incubators are categorized in to three groups -- Group 1 Centre (G1C), Group 2 Centre (G2C), and Group 3 Centre (G3C).

While G1C would have incubators offering “deep support” to startups including “mentoring, capacity building, investment and post-investment advisory”, G2C incubators would support “aspiring entrepreneurs and students” to launch their startups. G3C incubators would have to promote entrepreneurship in “unexplored regions”, as per its website.

In prerequisite, G1C, G2C and G3C should have 6, 25, and 20 incubations centres respectively in order to qualify. G1C should have 3 years and G2C should have 2 years of experience in offering incubation services along with tie-ups with industry bodies. G3C incubators should have at least an incubator or entrepreneurship cell.

Tide 2.0 would offer financial and technical support to incubators supporting ICT startups that are involving usage of deep technologies including artificial intelligence, blockchain, robotics, and internet of things in “pre-identified areas of societal relevance,” the ministry said.

More than 270 incubators and accelerators, which are managed by academic bodies, private players, government, and corporate, existed in the country till November last year. Over 70 incubators in India have been given financial support by respective state governments in the past two years, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade had said in last year’s States’ Startup Ranking.

Currently, there are 27 TIDE centres under the TIDE scheme (See List) are being supported at academic institutions across India.

TIDE Incubation Centers provide a gamut of services to new enterprises and facilitate linkages congenial for their survival and growth. The centres network with Angel Investors and Venture Capitalists who provide mentoring and financial support to the startups and enable tenant companies to mature over a period of 2-3 years and ultimately graduate to a commercial place to transact actual business.

Via ~ Financial Express

India's Largest Integrated Startup Complex to be Opened in Kochi on January 13

Kerala is setting up the country’s largest Integrated Startup Complex, which will house a Maker Village, Bionest, and BRINC, the country's first international accelerator for Hardware startups, among other facilities.

State officials have said that the initiative would put Kerala’s vibrant startup ecosystem at full throttle. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan will inaugurate the innovation hub, Integrated Startup Complex, at Kalamassery in Kochi on January 13. The complex promises to provide top quality infrastructure for incubation and acceleration.

Set up by Kerala Startup Mission (KSUM), the sprawling complex, spread over 180,000 sq ft in Technology Innovation Zone (TIZ), will house Maker Village, Bionest and BRINC, the country's first international accelerator for Hardware startups, BRIC, an incubator dedicated for developing solutions for cancer diagnosis care; and a Centre of Excellence set up by industry majors like UNITY and CERA.

Spread over 13.5 acres, KSUM’s TIZ will host incubators, accelerators, centres of excellence in emerging technologies and provide high quality infrastructure for the development and growth of startups.

Once fully developed into a full-fledged campus having over half-a-million sqft built up area, TIZ would become the largest Work-Live-Play space exclusively dedicated to startups in the country, said officials from the State.

Over a 100 startup companies in various stages of growth are already operating in the three incubators functioning within the facility. The Electronics Incubator Maker Village, set up by the Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management-Kerala (IIITM-K) in association with KSUM and supported by MeitY (Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology), houses 65 startups working in electronics hardware technologies.

BIONEST, a biotech startup set up by KSUM in association with Rajiv Gandhi Centre for Biotechnology (RGCB) with financial aid from BIRAC, Department of Bio Tech, Govt. of India, has 20 companies involved in deep research in biotechnology and allied fields.

The facility also has a general purpose incubator with more than 20 companies and provides with over 10,000 sqft of dedicated space for startups in scale-up stage.

During the last 12 months of operation, the startup companies operating in TIZ have filed over 30 patent applications, making this as one of the largest IP-based (intellectual property) incubation space in the country.
TIZ also has a full-fledged Fab Lab set up in association with MIT, USA and a large ESDM facility for supporting electronics startups working out of Maker Village.

[Top Image is for representative purpose only]

Goa Gets Startup Incubation Centre 'FiiRE' with ₹10 Crore Grant from DST

On Friday, Goa finally got a much needed startup and entrepreneurship incubation centre at Fatorda, Margao region. Named as Forum for Innovation Incubation Research and Entrepreneurship (FiiRE), the incubation centre was launched at Don Bosco College of Engineering, a Goa University affiliated institute established in 1970.

Established with the support of Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India under the National Initiative to Develop and Harness Innovation, FiiRE is dedicated towards helping move the startup process from the garage to the laboratory.

"FiiRE aspires to be the ‘GO TO’ Technology Business Incubator in the country supporting one hundred startups by 2023," says the FiiRE website.

The incubation centre aims to implement a structured incubation process to make the startups invest-able and leverage the strengths of the ecosystem to help startups scale faster.

The incubation centre will get Rs 10 Cr grants from DST and Agriculture Department of Goa state government would provide FiiRE an additional Rs 25 lakh to be used for startup ventures dealing with agriculture.

Besides providing incubation and co-working space to startups and entrepreneurs in the state, FiiRE will also provide access to government funding agencies, Seed fund including access to Angel Investors and Venture Capitalists.

FiiRE is now inviting free pre-incubation offer and interested startup/entrepreneurs can apply here.

Last year in March, the state's chief minister Manohar Parrikar had announced allocation of Rs 15 crore budget for startups in Goa as well as a separate allocation of Rs 50 lakh to encourage incubation centres and entrepreneur development centres in the state.

Later in December of same year, Goa state government had also approved the land transfer of over 12,000 sqm belonging to the directorate of skill development and entrepreneurship for the purpose of creating a startup-related ecosystem in the state.

Source - Goa Chronicle

[Top Image - Weekend Travels]

Kerala's ISRO Space Technology Park and Incubator to Go Live in June 2019

Kerala's much awaited space tech park, for which the state government had tied up with Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in March this year, would likely to be up and running by June next year. An MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) between the two will be signed soon, reported Financial Express.

The upcoming facility will be India's first of its kind ‘space park’ and will incubate and promote startups in the satellite and space technology sector.

Citing sources from the Kerala CMO, the report further states that Cabinet of Kerala state government has given the green signal for the space park initiative with the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), the rocket science arm of the ISRO.

The state Cabinet has cleared permission to allow 3.94 acre of land in Technocity, Thiruvananthapuram, on 90-year lease.

In January 2019, data analytics startups will kick off its operations by working on data sent by ISRO satellites. This will provide an initial precursor for other upcoming startups in the space park. Notably, ISRO's geospatial and weather-related data when explored poses a tremendous oppurtunity for startups to come up with innovative solutions so much so that startups could make millions using ISRO's data.

In the vicinity of the upcoming space park, there's - Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology (IIST) which is located at Valiamala, Thiruvananthapuram, and presence of this makes the centre a perfect integrated ecology for space technology.

IIST is a government-aided institute and deemed university for the study and research of space science. It is an Asia's first university to be solely dedicated to the study and research of outer space.

Space agency, ISRO, which seems to have fallen for magnetism of Indian startup ecosystem lately, is already in process of setting up startup incubation centres across the country. It recently unveiled its first space tech incubation center for startups in Tripura, a north-east state of India.

Called as 'ISRO-Space Technology Incubation Center (S-TIC)', IRSO is in the process of setting up six such incubation centres and the same number of research and development centres across the country over the next one year.

For one of its incubation centres, ISRO had considered Kerala too but the space agency later dropped the plan over security reasons. Later, ISRO reconsidered the idea and gave go-ahead since it already outsources manufacturing of satellites to Kerala’s knowledge city and the new common facility centre for startups was considered attractive.

Japan's automobile major Nissan, which -- in June this year -- had already inked pact with Kerala for setting up its first digital innovation hub in India in Technocity, Thiruvananthapuram, is likely to be the research partner in artificial intelligence (AI) for the space park.

Israel to Set Up Massive Startup Incubation Facilities in India Starting with Bengaluru in December

Israel-based Modiin Entrepreneurs’ Startup Hub (MESH) will set up an India-Israeli Innovation Centre (IIIC) in Bengaluru, which will be its first startup incubation facility in India after the US, the UK and China. IIIC i Bengaluru is expected to be launched mid of December this year, which will be followed by two more such incubation facilities in India.

Spread across 10,000 square feet, the Bengaluru facility, which is MESH's fourth such facility globally, will be set up in the central business district of Bengaluru and will be operated by MESH itself.

Startups that are part of IIIC will be given mentorship and guidance and opportunities to participate at all IIIC’s Global events and experience networking avenues with potential customers.

Beside giving Indian startups access to Israeli investors and frontier tech talent, the Bengaluru and other upcoming incubator facilities will bring on board both Israeli and Indian educational institutions for collaboration and co-research, under which Israel’s Technion, Ben-Gurian and Tel Aviv Universities will join hands with India's IITs and IIIT.

[caption id="attachment_126702" align="aligncenter" width="699"] MESH facility in Isarel`s Technology Park, Modiin[/caption]

Moreover, Israel is also aligning its India strategy around government initiatives like Startup India and Digital India. Israel has also identified six cities for starting these kind of incubation centres. Each incubation centre will have around Rs 2 crore investment.

Additionally, for Bangaluru and other upcoming incubation facilities in India, Israel will team up with Indian government policy think tank, NITI Aayog, and Atal Innovation Mission, an innovation promotion platform involving academics, entrepreneurs, and researchers

Varadarajan Krish will head these incubation centres in India. Varadarajan Krishna (Varad) is the Managing Director of Induct India, an Indian subsidiary of Norway based Induct AS, an Innovation Management company specializing in building, managing and sustaining high end Innovation communities worldwide.

MESH founder and CEO Moshe Porat said, in a statement to a daily, "the startup incubator in Benglauru is a step towards achieving greater synergy between Indian and Israeli startup companies."

Started in 2013, by Moshe Porat and Elisha Kucher, MESH is a place for startups to accelerate their business and ideas. With over 400 m2 of High Quality Co-Sharing space and offices, in-house VCs representatives and professional
services of Israel’s top firms, MESH is offering startups a platform to launch their businesses in the most
efficient and successful way.

Moshe Porat further said, "We have many startup companies in India, especially in Bengaluru, involved in deep technology and they are looking at leveraging by aligning with global startups and incubation centres. We expect by starting MESH in Bengaluru, we can bring synergy in this endeavor."

MESH is Headquartered in Modi'in-Maccabim-Re'ut, an Israeli city located in central Israel, about 35 Km southeast of Tel Aviv, which is Israel's major startup hub.

To recall, recently BSE Institute, a wholly owned subsidiary of leading Indian stock exchange BSE, joined hands with Israel-based Sasha Infrastructure, to promote startups and entrepreneurs in the domain of water conservation and technology.

In May, Israels Tel Aviv University and Tata Trusts joinded hands to launch 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 and will be then extended to all parts of India.

Source - Deccan Herald

Maharashtra Sanctions 16 Startup Incubation Centres with ₹5 Cr Grant to Each

State government of Maharashtra has sanctioned a network of 16 startup incubator centres across the state to promote the state's entrepreneurial talent and provide them a startup ecosystem.

The process of setting up a state-wide network of incubators has been started with selection of Mumbai University (MU) and Research Innovation Incubation Design Laboratory Foundation (RIIDLF), Vidyavihar, both from Mumbai, as first two incubation centres of total 16.

MU will be setting up an incubation centre at its Kalina campus, for which an area of 10,000 square feet has been earmarked at the University Green Technology building.

MU has identified sectors such as Renewable Energy, ESDM and Semiconductor Devices, Polymers and magnetic materials, Bio technology, E-Commerce and Retail, Artificial Intelligence, and Information Technology, Process Intensifications, Stimulation and Optimization in which the centre will carry out innovations.

Mumbai University has fertile campus for incubation and start-ups ventures as there are ample infrastructure with ready to use built up space, it further said.

To select rest of the 14 incubators, state government is inviting applications and the applicants will be shortlisted on the basis of business plan, leadership team, sector expertise, market linkages and infrastructure by a panel of experts from the startup ecosystem.

Giving special emphasis to universities, the shortlisted applicants for setting up incubation centres are eligible for grants of ₹5 crore each from Maharashtra State Innovative Society (MSInS), which was established under Department of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, government of Maharashtra on August 18, 2017.

Beside MU and RIIDLF, the other incubation centres are expected to come up at the Amravati University Development of Innovation, Incubation and Entrepreneurship; Center for Agro-Bio-Innovation and Incubation, SRTM University in Nanded; CSIR-National Environmental Engineering Research Institute in Nagpur; Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University in Aurangabad and Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Technological University in Lonere.

While 16 institutes were shortlisted in the first phase of implementation of the programme, the MSInS has started accepting applications for the second phase in which budding entrepreneurs in the state will have a chance to participate in boot camps during the startup Yatra and pitch their ideas at a seminar at Nagpur and the shortlisted startup ideas will receive pre-incubation offers.

Pre-incubation activities will be, experimental learning base, promote design thinking and creativity, develop understanding of new technologies, scaling research with students and faculty support to business, equip students with entrepreneurship and finance skills, develop skills in digital world of business.

Source - Times of India, Mumbai Mirror, Indian Express

NITI Aayog to Fund 80 Incubation Centers in 2nd Phase of Start-Up India Program

With a view to encourage and foster Indian startup ecosystem, policy think tank, NITI Aayog, will fund 80 incubation centers including Atal Incubation Centers and Established Incubation Centers (EICs), across the country.

This funding exercise will be part of the second phase of "Startup India" Program that was announced in January 2015.

Minister of State for Commerce and Industry C R Chaudhary informed the Lok Sabha that the government has selected 80 incubation centers for funding by Niti Aayog in the 2nd phase of Startup India program.

The names of 80 incubation centers that will be funded in the second phase have still not been made official.

However, it is confirmed that Atal Incubation Centres and Established Incubation Centres (EICs) will be receiving funds in the second phase.

In a written reply to question, Chaudhary said that Startup India hub has so far mentored more than 550 startups, 2,20,000 startups have been registered and nearly one lakh queries have been successfully handled.

In the first funding phase, NITI Aayog had selected only 19 incubation centers.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced the Startup India and Standup India initiative on Independence Day in 2015.

The initiative was officially launched by former Finance Minister Arun Jaitely on January 2016.

It aims at fostering entrepreneurship and promoting innovation by creating an ecosystem that is conducive for growth of Start-ups.

India's Largest Startup Incubator To Be Inaugurated on 18 July in Hubballi

19 months back Silicon Valley entrepreneur Gururaj "Desh" Deshpande, a known name in the business world, announced that his philanthropy arm, The Deshpande Foundation, will launch India's largest startup incubation centre yet at Hubballi (earlier Hubli) in Karnataka.

Now in a latest, India's largest startup incubation centre will finally be inaugurated on July 18 by NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant, at Hubballi in Karnataka. The incubation centre is being set up by Sandbox Startups, a flagship of Deshpande Foundation, and is aimed at solving the problems of non-metropolitan population.

The new facility, which has the capacity of hosting up to a 100 startups, is spread across 6.09 acres of land near the Hubballi Airport. The facility will have a range of prototyping facilities, including a Maker’s lab with manufacturing and 3D printing capabilities as well as a fully operational Electronic Systems Design and Manufacturing (ESDM) centre.

In its offerings to startups, the incubation centre will provide a range of services from access to mentors, including many through a partnership with IESA (India Electronics and Semiconductor Association), network of founders, entrepreneurs and domain experts.

“Startups at the centre will be incubated through various stages of growth and will provide the startups a flexible configuration that will allow them to scale up in space as their needs and staffing grows,” explained Deshpande.

In addition, Sandbox Startup Incubation Centre will work closely with startups and help them define their unique market proposition. The incubation centre will serve as a model to show how startups can grow in mid-tiered cities while providing technological solutions. Sandbox Startups is already actively recruiting new ideas and many startups are being incubated along with the launch of the incubation centre.

Also Read - Haryana Launches Its First Startup Incubator and ₹10 Crore Fund for Student Startups

Conceptualized in 2008, Sandbox Startups provides incubation support to first-time entrepreneurs to test and pilot their business ideas and engage with early adopters, investment firms, government agencies, successful entrepreneurs and mentors.

In August 2014, Microsoft Ventures and the Deshpande Foundation together launched the Sandbox Startups incubator to support start-ups in Tier II and Tier III cities of India.

In July 2016, Sandbox Startups inaugurated a new incubation centre in the city of Belgaum, Karnataka. In partnership with the Karnatak Law Society's Institute of Management Education and Research (KLS IMER), the new Sandbox-IMER incubation centre welcomed four new startups into the program.

Since its inception, Sandbox Startup incubator has supported over 80 startups across various domains including Nanopix, Logistimo, NextDrop, AqauSafi Purification Systems and Chippersage Education, among others. It has been successful in creating wealth of over Rs 70 crore in the local economy.

It may also be recalled that, in April, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Dr Raman Singh inaugurated '36Inc' in Raipur, which is the first government-supported startup incubation centre in the state, and claims it to be second biggest centre in the entire country, after Hyderabad's T-Hub.

Additionally, last month, India's Union science & technology minister Harsh Vardhan announced that India will soon have its first international incubator coming up in capital city of Delhi, to promote innovation in the field of clean energy and stimulate research, innovation, and entrepreneurship for the global initiative on clean energy.

Source - Abhinav Singh, The Week

[Top Image Via - Art Brown @Medium]

Jain Community To Set Up Chain of Startup Incubation Centers All Across India, First One Launched In Mumbai

Starting a new business is a lot of work. Every entrepreneur going through the early stage startup phase can make use of some help and guidance from experts who have done this previously or have some knowledge of how the business world works. In order to provide this guidance to new entrepreneurs and encourage more youngsters to take the entrepreneurship route, the Jain community has decided to set up a number incubation centres across all major metros in the country. The first one among the many will be set up at Andheri, Mumbai.

Called the called ‘Cello JITO Incubation Centre,’ the not-for-profit facility will be providing thorough guidance and handholding to all its occupants. The building for the centre is being provided absolutely rent free by the Cello Group. The centre will be officially owned by JITO Incubation and Innovation Foundation (JIIF), which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Jain International Trade Organization (JITO).

For the uninitiated, JITO, is a multi-stakeholder community of visionary Jain’s who share the commitment to shape the future of the country, especially by working with the younger generation. Having almost 6,000 members, it claims to be single largest organisations of prominent businessmen, industrialists and professionals not only in the Indian subcontinent but also across the globe.

Located at Business Square at Solitaire Park, Chakala, Andheri East, the incubation centre will be spread over 8500 sq ft and have a capacity of 100+ seats. Once operational, the facility will offer its incubatees shared support services like HR, legal, IT and accounts etc. In addition to this, it will also help them in funding and ready market for implementation as per eligibility.

“This facility will help all the budding entrepreneurs in the city and will offer the best of services to the occupants. It is conveniently located and has all the modern facilities that start-ups require,” said Mr Pradeep G Rathod of Cello Group.

This development was first reported in IndiaEducationDiary.