The Central Government has approved six proposals to set up centres of excellence to promote and fund start-ups under the National Initiative for Development and Harnessing Innovation (NIDHI), a programme spearheaded by the Department of Science and Technology. The proposals for six centres of excellence that were approved on September 3 by the National Expert Advisory Committee include SINE-IIT Bombay, Venture Center-NCL Pune, CIIE-IIM Ahmedabad and a research park at IIT-Gandhinagar.
The Government has earmarked Rs500 crore to scale up the start-up eco system, under which seed funding of up to Rs 10 lakh will be given to develop a prototype and access fabrication facilities in incubators. The Department of Science and Technology will also help connect the innovators with angel investors and venture capitalists. The department has already held camps to promote NIDHI in 4,000 colleges.
The department has partnered with large international corporates, such as Intel, Lockheed Martin, Boeing and Texas Instruments, to initiate technology-driven, innovation-based programmes to promote start-ups. The existing total incubation space in the country of about 7 lakh square feet will soon be expanded to 20 lakh square feet.