Centre to set up electronics development fund for aiding start-ups

The govt is partnering with angel funds to fund startups in IT, electronics and manufacturing

Recommending the replication of Kerala's Startup Village model in other states to boost entrepreneurship, Union Minister for Communication and Information Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad said the Centre would set up an electronics development fund for promoting start-ups in the country.

"In order to promote entrepreneurship in IT, the central government has come up with the concept of electronic development fund, with the government partnering with angel funds to fund startups in IT, electronics and manufacturing," the minister said during his visit to Startup Village in Kalamassery.

Hailing the Modi government's 'Digital India' campaign as a revolutionary plan to bridge the gap between the digital haves and have-nots, he said the entire profile of India would change in the next four to five years. The Union government recently had proposed to connect 250,000 village panchayats with a national optical fibre network in the next three years.

Kerala is doing very well in this. By the end of the present financial year, all village panchayats in the state will have the national optical fibre network, helping the growth of online education, e-commerce and healthcare services.

"India has got 900-million mobile phones and 300-million internet connections. We have to make them more effective and more accessible and promote entrepreneurship in this field," he added.

He said India can have dozens of Silicon Valleys as many Indians were doing well in IT professions abroad and many of them have been coming back.

The central government is promoting electronic manufacturing in a big way by giving many incentives to electronic clusters across the country.

"Until now, we received investment proposals worth Rs 18,000 crore from foreign players and others in electronic manufacturing. Of this, around Rs 4,000 crore worth of projects have been approved," he said.

"As for the incentives, if a state government or any other body provides 100 acres of land for setting up manufacturing units, the Centre will provide a funding support of Rs 50 crore straight away. Also, for every Rs 100 invested by someone in a factory, the government of India will invest Rs 25. This is apart from incentives given by the state," he added.

Kerala principal secretary for IT and Industries PH Kurian and Startup Village CEO Pranav Kumar Suresh, who were present on the occasion, briefed the minister about the activities of the Startup Village and the growing startup ecosystem in Kerala.