The Government of Odisha has been working aggressively towards making Odisha the foremost startup hub of the country. In lieu of this, Startup Odisha has entered into a partnership with Invest India in March this year to provide professional support for strengthening the local startup ecosystem in the state and bring it at par with global standards.
The MSME Department of the government of Odisha, led from the front by Additional Chief Secretary Mr L. N Gupta and the young Invest India team have been instrumental in effectuating change from the ground level. 130 startups from across the state from sectors as diverse as agriculture, AR/VR, IoT, Renewable Energy, Human Resource and even Aeronautics have already been given recognition under Startup Odisha initiative. Of these 130 startups, 20 startups are also receiving financial benefits directly from the state. Besides, a number of networking and guest speaker sessions have been organised to give startups the right exposure.
In what is likely to be a major fillip to the growing prominence of Bhubaneswar as the next big Startup City, Startup Council of the state sanctioned a matching grant of Rs 2.5 crores to IIT Bhubaneswar Research & Entrepreneurship Park for setting up a Centre of Excellence for Virtual & Augmented Reality for Immersive Visualization (VARCoE). The centre has already received a philanthropic contribution of Rs 2.5 crores from Smt Susmita Bagchi. Besides, Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) has committed another 2.5 crores for the centre. The centre is likely to catapult Bhubaneswar as the hub for startups operating in the AR&VR domain and bring in access to world class infrastructure and technology as well as provide global connects in this space.
Underscoring the importance of mentors in the journey of great startups, the Council also approved the creation of a Startup Odisha mentor network. This would be ably complimented by providing the startups in the state training in functional and leadership skills through regular bootcamps and training sessions which will help them compete at the international level.
