Country's second 'electropreneur' park to come up in Bhubaneswar

The Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) has entered into a pact with India Electronics and Semiconductor Association (IESA), the premier trade body representing the Indian electronic system design and manufacturing (ESDM) sector and International Institute of Information Technology, Bhubaneswar for setting up an electropreneur park in Bhubaneswar.

The park, akin to the electropreneur park which has come up in Delhi University, will incubate startups in the ESDM space. The incubation centre will be set up within the premises of STPI's new facility in Bhubaneswar. It aims at achieving the objectives of the ESDM vision outlined in the National Policy on Electronics and other policies.

“The park will incubate about 40 start-ups in the ESDM space and will see an investment of Rs 22 crore equally shared by the state and the Centre. STPI is the nodal agency for implementing the project”, said an official.

A memorandum of understanding (MoU) for the new park was signed by Omkar Rai, director general at STPI, Gopal Krishna Nayak, Director of IIIT, Bhubaneswar and Jitendra Chaddah, vice president of IESA.

“This is the second of its kind in the country after the first electropreneur park in University of Delhi. The electropreneur park is aimed at creating products in ESDM sector to meet the requirement indigenously and create products for further exports. With a view to create synergy between both the electrorpeneur parks , we have decided that both the parks will work in a complimentary manner. They will capitalize on the smart lab that we have in Bangalore and another we are going to establish in Bhubaneswar itself”, said Rai.

Start-ups under verticals- energy, education and industrial automation and process control will be given focus at the centre.

To promote the successful startups or incubatees of the proposed ESDM incubation centre, it is envisaged to offer preferential allotment in Electronic Manufacturing Cluster on the outskirts of Bhubaneswar.

The Odisha government has taken a host of measures- preparation of road map for the hardware industry and characterization lab for chip testing to attract investments in the ESDM sector.

The ESDM sector, as per a strategic roadmap, is poised to generate cumulative revenue of Rs 18,800 crore in Odisha by 2024. The report said, investments of Rs 7,340 crore need to be pumped into the sector in three phases to realise the projected revenue and employment generation for around 60,000 people.

Khurda, Rayagada, Sundergarh, Balasore and Ganjam districts are identified as the potential areas for setting up of ESDM projects. In addition, the Information and Communication Technology Policy-2014, promises sops for the promotion of ESDM units.