Replicate Kerala's Startup Village model nationally: Experts

Startup Village, India's first telecom and Internet incubator which has scripted a trailblazing product startup model in Kerala, needs to be replicated across the country by providing a conducive ecosystem, industry experts and officials have said.

Startup Village has already incubated 3,000 startups, resulting in a massive upsurge in Kerala's product startup industry. More than 650 product startup companies have been incubated, out of which 31 successfully raised a first round of funding.

"The pilot PPP model experiment by Government of India to set up India's first Startup Village at Kochi (Kerala) is witnessing a massive influx of applications. The first 1,000 applications took 15 months while the next 1,000 applications took only eight months," said Startup Village chairman Sanjay Vijayakumar.

"It is a big milestone for the incubator," he said.

In the last three months alone, the incubator received over 1,000 applications with half of them from outside Kerala.

"This makes a strong case for replication of Startup Village across the country. In August, Startup Village would also be setting up India's first landing pad in Silicon Valley. If provided a conducive atmosphere, the next Google can come from India," said Vijayakumar.

He said the success of Startup Village has prodded the Kerala government to come out with some major policy recommendations like India's first student entrepreneurship policy, which provides 20 per cent attendance and 4 per cent grace marks to students pursuing innovations.

The state has also made a major policy change by setting aside one percent of its budget for entrepreneurship, which translates into more than Rs.500 crore a year.

Sharad Sharma, former research and development head at Yahoo India, said the ecosystem for software product startup needs to be scaled up by providing an enabling atmosphere and tax concessions in R&D. Areas like venture and Angel Funding also need to be streamlined.

"Software product industry is India's ticket to become a product nation. India is already a major player in software products and has the potential to be one of the global leaders," Sharma said.

Jay Pullur of Pramati Systems said India needs to develop its product industries in defence, aerospace, electronics and software to be a viable economic power. "The shift to products from services will define India for the next 30 years," he added.