Odisha government has approved a proposal to set up startup hubs in major cities of the state, aiming to boost the ecosystem for emerging businesses, government officials said.Chief Secretary and Chief Development Commissioner, Odisha and Secretary to Government Shri Aditya Prasad Padhi, while reviewing the progress of the startup policy implementation, directed officials to prepare a detailed business plan of the proposed hubs for its effective management and operation. Meanwhile, LN Gupta, Additional Chief Secretary, MSME, said that Odisha emerged as a ‘Top Performer’ in the States’ Startup Ranking 2018 among the participating 27 states and three Union Territories.
About the Startup Ranking 2018:
The Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry released the first ever States’ Startup Ranking 2018 on 20 December, 2018 in New Delhi at a special event organized at Pravasi Bharatiya Kendra. DIPP began this exercise from January, 2016. The ‘State/UT Startup Ranking Framework’ was spread across 7 areas of intervention with a total of 38 action points and an overall score of 100 marks. As per startup ranking 2018, Gujarat has emerged as the best performing state in the country for the startups. A total of 27 states and 3 union territories participated in this exercise.
Gujarat was ranked as the Best Performer with 100 percentile. Karnataka, Kerala, Odisha and Rajasthan were decided as Top Performers with more than 85 percentile but less than 100 percentile. Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Telangana and Madhya Pradesh were ranked as Leaders with more than or equal to 70 percentile but less than or equal to 85 percentile. Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal were ranked as Aspiring Leaders with more than 50 percentile but less than 70 percentile. Assam, Delhi, Goa, Jammu & Kashmir, Maharashtra, Punjab, Tamil Nadu and Uttarakhand were judged as Emerging States with more than 25 percentile but less than or equal to 50 percentile. Chandigarh, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, Pondicherry, Sikkim, and Tripura were ranked as Beginners with less than or equal to 25 percentile. Fifty-one officers from States and Union Territories have been identified as “Champions”, who have made significant contributions towards developing their State’s Start-up ecosystem.
The states have been identified as leaders across various categories such as Start-up policy leaders, Incubation hubs, Seeding Innovation, Scaling Innovation, Regulatory Change Champions, Procurement Leaders, Communication Champions, North- Eastern Leader and Hill- State Leader. The aim of this ranking was to encourage states and union territories to strengthen their startup ecosystems in their respective regions and encourage budding entrepreneurs to work on their business ideas and it also ensured a healthy competition amongst the states and union territories. The seven framework pillars of the ranking were Startup policy and implementation, Incubation support, Seed funding support, Funding Support: Angel and Venture funding Support, Simplified regulations, Easing public procurement and Awareness and outreach.
Progress of Odisha Government in Startup area:
Odisha Government has started Startup Odisha Policy in 2016 successively after the launch of Startup India Program by our honorable Prime Minister Narendra Modi with a vision ‘To emerge amongst the top 3 “Startup Hubs” in India by 2020 through strategic partnerships, conducive ecosystem, investment and policy interventions’ and with a mission to build a holistic startup ecosystem in Odisha to enable the State to become one of the top three Startup destinations in the country, provide fiscal and non-fiscal benefits in a transparent and time bound manner, streamline rules, regulations and legislations to create a startup friendly environment and implement a supportive regulatory framework and robust governance structure that enables hassle-free, time bound statutory clearances and monitoring of this policy. The policy would provide incentives and exemptions over and above the Startup policy of Government of India and any other existing policy in the State.According to Startup Odisha Policy, the definition for a startup lies as the date of its incorporation/registration should not be more than 7 years and in case of biotechnology startups it should not be more than 10 years, the entity’s annual turnover should not exceed 25 crores for any preceding financial year, the entity should employ at least 50% of its total workforce in Odisha if not registered/incorporated in Odisha and the entity should not be an extension of a family run business or formed by splitting up or reconstruction of a business already in existence.
Under the policy, the state government has planned to open Incubation hubs, Industry groups, Startup Innovation Parks and many more infrastructures to boost the startups into next level. The government will assist startups in money, publicity and need-based. The Odisha government has launched a web portal for startups where all the players of the startup ecosystem can connect each other such as entrepreneurs,
incubators, angel investors, venture capitalists, nodal agency approvers and other major ones. They have started a one-stop online portal i.e., startupodisha.gov.in.
“Under the Start-up Odisha initiative, the state has recognized 11 incubators with combined incubation space of over 4.2 lakh square feet. These incubators provide not just co-working space but also mentorship, seed funding and access to state of the art research and development facilities. We have also created a Mentors’ Network with over 110 mentors across various sectors to provide guidance to startups. We have also coordinated with various stakeholders for the launch of Bhubaneswar Angels. It is already registered as a trust and will be launched soon” said LN Gupta, Additional Chief Secretary to government, MSME, spoke with Dipti Ranjan Das of Orissa Post about start-up ecosystem in the state and what can be expected from the sector in the coming years and how does state grooms the registered start-ups for the next stage. He also added that to inculcate the spirit of entrepreneurship among youth the state has funded for 500 Entrepreneurship Development Programmes (EDPs) to be conducted across the state. An online Learning and Development (L&D) programme is also available on the Start-up Odisha website for the benefit of youth and besides that they has set up entrepreneurship cum innovation cells across 54 academic institutions in the state to promote the culture of entrepreneurship.
