Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion has written to over 250 corporate houses in India, inviting them join it in setting up 70 start-up incubators across the country.
Half of the centers will be set up in existing institutions — such as the IITs — while the other half will be set up as independent centers.
The start-up incubators are being floated as part of overall ‘Start Up India’ program of the central government, also known as Atal Innovation Mission.
The incubation centers will receive a grant of Rs 10 cr over a period of five years and will be run in the public-private-partnership model. The private sector participants are not expected to ‘sponsor’ the centers, but get involved at a deeper level, a DIPP official said.
“We have realized that such enterprises work well when there is participation from private sector as well,” he said, adding that suggestions for the location of these 70 centers were invited from the public. A total of 3,658 applications were received and 63 out of them were shortlisted, he added.
The 63 shortlisted include ten that will be set up totally from scratch, while the others have some existing infrastructure already in place.
The DIPP has prepared a handbook detailing the role of the private sector in operating these incubation centers.
Separately, the Ministry of Human Resource Development and the Department of Science and Technology have also identified 10 out of the planned 16 ‘Technology Business Incubators’. These will be located premier institutions like NITs, IITs and IIMs and funded directly by the Department of Science and Technology and each of the center will get Rs 50 lakhs per year.