Odisha plans policy for start-ups

For promoting the new age entrepreneurs, the Odisha government would formulate a state specific start-up Policy by March 2016.

"We will soon bring out a focused policy for the start-up entrepreneurs of the state. The TiE Bhubaneswar has suggested a draft policy and we will take a call on it soon at the government level. We have received inputs also", Debi Prasad Mishra, said at the Startup Policy meeting organised by TiE (The Indus Entrepreneurs).

There are a pool of ideas for start-up in electronics, agri-industries, bio-informatics and biotechnology sectors which need to be supported, said Mishra.

"TiE's has given a draft policy and we will be working on it. We will come out with a substantially better policy compared to the other states," said Sanjiv Chopra, state industries secretary.

The Odisha government has made an arrangement with the TiE Silicon Valley to mentor two entrepreneurs quarterly.

In the draft policy suggested by TiE Bhubaneswar it is aimed make Odisha among the top three start-up destinations in India by 2020 and to develop a robust ecosystem in five cities of Odisha by 2020.

The objective of the draft policy also includes to attract Rs 1,000 crore in investments into the incubation and start-up ecosystem. It has suggested to provide Rs 250 crore for youth entrepreneurship activities for the next five years or earmark one per cent of the annual state budget.

The draft policy targets also include to establish at least 20 technology business incubators and accelerators in each of the different sectors in the state to encourage at least 1,000 technology product startups, develop 0.5 million square feet (sq ft) of incubation space, facilitate venture capital funding of a minimum of Rs 1000 crore, setting up of facilitation centre in each district and single window clearance facility, among others.