With an objective to give a boost to startups in India, the government of India launched ‘Startup India, Standup India in January 2016. It was an initiative of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi. The major objective and aim of the initiative was to exempt profits and compliance from startups for the first three years. The idea was to roll out an action plan for boosting entrepreneurship and innovation in the country.
According to the action plan, seven new research parks are likely to come up on the lines of Research Part of Indian Institute of Technology, Madras. The new research parks will come up with an estimated budget of Rs. 100 crore each (initial investment).
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By setting up research parts, the government will propel the innovation through joint R&D efforts and incubation between industry and academia. The new research parks will come up at the following institutes: -
- Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi
- Indian Institute of Technology, Gandhinagar
- Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore
- Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur
- Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur
- Indian Institute of Technology, Hyderabad
- Indian Institute of Technology, Guwahati
For this purpose, the Research Park of IIT Madras has agreed to extend its support by leveraging the academic expertise. IIT Madras leverages best practices from globally successful research parks that include Cambridge, MIT, and Stanford.
Among the seven research parks, HRD Ministry will fund for setting up five research parks with the help of Department of Science and Technology. The construction of Research Park at IIT Kharagpur is already underway. Department of Science and Technology will set up Research Part at IIT Gandhinagar. For this purpose, DST sanctioned Rs. 90 crore, and the first installment of Rs. 40 crore has been disbursed.
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The government will also promote startups in the Biotechnology sector. For this purpose, the government will set up: -
- 20 Bio-Connect offices
- 150 Technology Transfer offices
- 50 new Bio-Incubators
- Five new Bio-Clusters
- Biotech Equity Funds in collaboration with National and Global Equity Funds