STPI to set up seed capital fund

To help young entrepreneurs in the knowledge sector

The Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) will soon set up a seed capital fund to promote entrepreneurship in the knowledge sector, Union minister for communications and IT Dayanidhi Maran said here.

"We are considering such a fund as the STPIs are in a position to create it from the reserves they presently have. The idea is to attract as many entrepreneurs to set up start-ups in the incubation centres being created across the country by the STPIs," Maran said after inaugurating the new STPI-Bangalore facility (Cyber Park) and its Orchid incubation centre in the Electronics City here.

The $2 million (Rs 9.2 crore) Orchid TechScape is a joint programme of the STPI and the Government of Karnataka. The centre will work closely with the Indian SemiConductor Association (ISA) and The Indus Entrepreneurship (TiE) to incubate tech start-ups and firms.

According to STPI, many Global IT players like Intel, HP and IBM have shown interest in working from the centre.

As a first of its kind facility in an STPI, the centre will facilitate entrepreneurs starting enterprises without capital investment and working on innovative projects to produce intellectual property within the country. US-based tech firms like Synopsys and Cadence have agreed to provide VLSI (very large system integration) design tools to enhance entrepreneurship.

Maran said that having state-of-the-art facilities including high-end desktops, servers, data centre and an international gateway, the incubation centre will encourage and facilitate innovation without the constraints of seed capital.

Referring to the exponential growth of the IT industry, especially in the export of software and IT-enabled services, which achieved $24 billion in the last fiscal (2005-06), Maran said that the time had come for the industry to emulate Silicon Valley by coming up with disruptive technologies and innovative products instead of merely focusing on IT services.

"The Indian IT sector needs to move up the value chain by creating innovative products. On our part, we will give enough encouragement and support to those who come up with ideas and help them productise and launch them in global arena," Maran added.

The state-owned STPIs were set up by the Union IT department in the nineties to promote and facilitate software exports by providing dedicated datacom and network services to domestic and overseas customers and act as a catalytic interface between the software industry and the government at the centre and state levels.

To a query, Maran said that his ministry was open to considering the corporatisation of the STPI, which is functioning as a society under Union IT ministry.

"We will consider such an option at an appropriate time, as the STPIs have got to do a lot still to enable the IT industry to grow in tier-II and tier-III cities. We are working with several state governments to identify such locations to ensure equitable growth and maintain our global competitiveness," he added.