Startups from less IT-popular states represented at CeBIT

As many as 11 IT startups from Indian states less popular for IT industry marked their presence at the three-day CeBIT India 2015 exposition propelled by Software Technology Parks of India (STPI).

The represented states included Rajasthan, Sikkim, Goa, Assam, Uttarakhand and Jammu and Kashmir (J&K).

Jammu and Kashmir-based five-year-old consultancy and web development startup LeLafe connected with many vendors at CeBIT, said Zeeshan Khan from LeLafe.

"It is very hard for IT companies to boom in J&K, government should help us. At CeBIT, I interacted with many other vendors opening up possibilities for collaboration, projects and resources," Khan said.

With clients in the Middle East, the UK and the US, LeLafe also counts Jammu and Kashmir University as its client for which it executed an exam enrollment project.

"The Jammu and Kashmir government should encourage startups by giving state government projects to startups rather than outsourcing them," Khan added.

Occupying a six square foot stall at Make in India pavilion freely provided by STPI, startup Bharatm Data's S.Raman Prakash interacted with more than 150 clients of which 50 exhibited promise.

Dehradun, Uttarakhand-based Bharatm Data operates in the space of digitizing physical books into e-books and creating paperless business cards using QR codes.

"It is very pleasing to see these startups come from tier 2 and tier 3 cities from less IT popular states in India. The growth of IT industry is dependent on innovative startups. It is already high time that India should focus on building IT products than services, IT products increase revenue in leaps and bounds," said Prabir K. Das, director, STPI.

Webx Technologies from Assam, Demi Solutions from Sikkim, Yusata Infotech and Neerja Software from Rajasthan and Umang Software Technologies from Goa are some other startups which showed up at CeBIT India 2015.

However, Infosystems & Solutions, the lone startup from Bihar missed the CeBIT India 2015 bus by being absent and leaving its allocated stall vacant for the entire three days.

Also, one more startup each from Sikkim, Orissa and Punjab also did not show up and left their space vacant while Karnataka occupied the lion's share of the exhibition space by fielding 24 startups and MSMEs.

"STPI paid Rs.55,000 for each stall to CeBIT to enable these startups to showcase themselves. More than 100 stalls have been setup," added Das.

Of the more than 100 MSMEs and startups roped in by STPI, 10 have been shortlisted from all the nine STPI jurisdictions to appear at CeBIT 2016 in Hannover for business development and finding additional markets.

Emnics Technologies, Vidushi Infotech SSP, Easy Designs Systems, iView Labs, Webx Technologies (from Assam), Linkwell Telesystems, Trimetric Software Solutions, Scientech Technologies, Thinkpalm Technologies and Webtown Solutions are the selected 10 startups.

"We will take the selected 10 startups from national exposure to international exposure," added Das.