The Centre has financially supported over 10,000 startups with the amount of Rs 580 million over 5 years

NEW DELHI: The federal government has financially supported over 10,000 technology startups through various schemes in the last five years, Jitin Prasada, Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology, said in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha.

The Centre has infused a total amount of Rs 580 crore of funds to startups through incubators, including over 3,600 technology startups supported by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), with the total amount of funds infused being Rs 212 crore of funds.

Under the Startup India initiative, “the government has undertaken flagship programmes such as Fund of Funds for Startups (FFS), Startup India Seed Fund Scheme (SISFS) and Credit Guarantee Scheme for Startups (CGSS),” Prasada said.

These programs helped startups raise investment from angel investors or venture capitalists or take out loans.

Prasada said that through these programmes, there are over 1.43 lakh startups in India that have been recognised by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT).

The initiatives undertaken by MeitY include Technology Incubation and Entrepreneur Development (TIDE 2.0), Startup Accelerator MeitY for Product Innovation, Development and Growth (SAMRIDH), Next Generation Incubation Scheme (NGIS), domain-specific Centres of Excellence (CoEs) and thematic Incubation Centre, Prasada said.

The TIDE 2.0 programme was launched by MeitY in 2019 with an amount of Rs 264.62 crore over five years to extend financial and technical support to higher education institutions and leading research and development organisations.

SAMRIDH provides support to selected accelerators to extend acceleration services to startups and also provides individual financial support of up to Rs 40 lakh.

The NGIS programme has a solution-centric architecture and aims to support 300 technology startups in tier-2 and tier-3 cities over a period of three years with a total budget of Rs 95.03 crore.

Under MeitY, 42 centres of excellence have also been planned and launched to help make India a hub for new technology innovation.

Entrepreneurship parks have also been set up through STPI New Delhi, Makers Village in Cochin Kerala, IIIT-Patna and the Bihar government for medical electronics and at the Fabless IC Design Incubation Centre at IIT-Hyderabad to support innovative manufacturing of electronic systems and design.