Odisha, a late entrant into the start-up space, is firming up its presence in the sector with a slew of innovative ideas and approaches.
To begin with, Odisha plans to tap Public Sector Units’ (PSUs) Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) funds to finance startup incubators and set up an angel network, a first for a State government.
This would be followed by setting up of an innovation fund, appointing nodal agencies and roping in mentors such as T-Hub CEO Jay Krishnan and Google’s Vice-President for South- East Asia and India Rajan Anandan among others.
“The government will request PSUs based in the State to leverage their CSR funds to set up incubators in the technical institutes and universities. We expect every PSU to invest at least ₹10 crore,” Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik told BusinessLine in an exclusive interview.
The State government intends to tap PSUs such as Mahanadi Coal Fields, NTPC, National Aluminium Company Ltd, Indian Oil Corp, Paradip Port Trust and Odisha Mining Corp among others.
The State is also planning to set up an angel network — BhubaneswarAngel Network — and an innovation fund, while it is also gearing up for hackathons and start-up conclave among others. It will also set up incubation centres in Berhampur, Sambalpur, Balsara, Rourkela and Jeypore.
Odisha isalso roping in six institutions as nodal agencies — Indian Institute of Technology-Bhubaneswar; National Institute of Technology-Rourkela; Software Technology Parks of India-Bhubaneswar/Rourkela/Berhampur/Balasore among others — as nodal agencies to certification of start-ups. These nodal agencies would also assess these start-up on funding eligibility.