Yogi Adityanath urges Sidbi to set aside Rs 200 cr for start-ups in UP

An incubation centre will be set up at IIT-Lucknow to promote entrepreneurs within the state

The Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh has urged the Small Industries Development Bank of India (Sidbi) to institute a start-up fund for promoting micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) within the state.

The proposed fund is likely to have a corpus of about Rs 200 crore; further talks are underway in this regard, Sidbi Deputy Managing Director Ajay Kumar Kapur told Business Standard on Friday.

Earlier this week, the Yogi Adityanath government had announced its new industrial policy for faster industrial and economic development. The policy aims at integrating the state-centric ‘Make in UP’ project with the Centre’s flagship ‘Make in India’ mission. Integration is aimed at ensuring the state continues to benefit from various schemes and sops launched by the central government, along with an investment boost focusing on UP’s backward regions.

SIDBI is also setting up an incubation centre at the Indian Institute of Management in Lucknow to promote entrepreneurship and startups. The SIDBI Centre for Innovation and Financial Inclusion (SCIFI), with a corpus of about Rs 2.5 crore, is likely to be completed by September 2017.

This would be the second SIDBI-funded incubation centre in UP after a similar facility was set up at the Indian Institute of Technology in Kanpur (IIT-K). The Kanpur centre, billed as one of India's leading technology startup incubators, was set up in 2001 and has so far supported over 65 startup projects.

The financial institution has been providing equity and risk capital directly through startup assistance and growth capital schemes, besides offering indirect investments via fund of funds (FoF) operations. 

Meanwhile, SIDBI deliberated upon the strategic initiatives to be undertaken in the near future for overcoming various financial and non-financial gaps in the domestic MSME eco-system during its 19th annual general meeting (AGM) in Lucknow. 

According to Kapur, the bank is striving to augment credit flow to the MSMEs in the country. As part of its strategy to partner with other lenders for providing financial assistance to the MSMEs, SIDBI has also forged tie-ups with Vijaya Bank and Capital Small Finance Bank.

Over the last few months, several small finance banks (SFBs) have started operations to increase lending to the SME space. Most of these entities have been supported by SIDBI in their initial growth journey, he added.

Since inception, the bank has benefited about 36 million people in the sector.