Dept. of Science & Technology commits Rs 500cr to Start Up India initiative

Further helping Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ambitious initiative on ‘Startup India’, the Department of Science and Technology (DST) has announced a commitment of Rs 500 crore to implement new programmes in the next few years.

Dr. Harsh Vardhan, the Minister for Science and Technology, stated that the central government has approved six proposals to set up centres of excellence to promote and fund startups under the National Initiative for Development and Harnessing Innovation (NIDHI).

The key stakeholders of NIDHI includes various departments and ministries of the central government, state governments, academic and R & D institutions, mentors, financial institutions, angel investors, venture capitalists, industry champions and private sectors.

According to the release, there are eight components of NIDHI that support each stage of a budding startup from idea to market.

It focuses on building a seamless and innovation driven entrepreneurial ecosystem especially by channelising youth towards it and thereby bringing in the positive impact on the socio-economic development of the country.

NIDHI, by design connects and strengthens all the links of the innovation chain from scouting to sustaining to securing to scaling to showcasing, because a chain is only as strong as its weakest link, the Ministry of Science and Technology said in a release.