Sushil Modi appeals to IIT students for innovations

Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi Saturday appealed to students of IIT, Patna for "innovations" in the fields of education, health and agriculture to enable solutions in these fields.

"I appeal to students to come forward to carry out innovations in the fields of education, health and agriculture so that solutions can be found for the problems of these fields under Solve For Bihar and Solve For India programme," he said at a programme organised at IIT, Patna.

Modi, who is also the state's finance and IT minister, said India is poised for the fourth industrial revolution and startups of IIT, Patna must have greater role in it.

He said that under the Bihar's Startup Policy, 2016, which was started with a corpus fund of Rs 500 crore, every startup would get an interest free maximum loan of Rs 10 lakh for 10 years.

Ten per cent of space would be reserved for startups at SME Cluster and Hub, he said adding under the Startup policy a total of Rs 1.88 crore has been given to 57 certified startups as seed capital.

Sushil Modi said that a 30,000 sq m two-storeyed building is being built at IIT, Patna, premises at an estimated cost of Rs 15 crore by both the central and state governments. The space in the building will be provided for 50 incubators for electronic system design and manufacturing and medical electronics.