Emerging Technologies startup scenario is taking center stage in India. The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade, Minister in Parliament stated that India has established 26 centres of excellence (CoEs) across the nation to develop capabilities in the field of emerging technologies.
Due to proactive government interventions, Startups have grown from 471 in 2016 to 72,993 in 2022. Startups spread across 56 diversified sectors
Furthermore, he said so far recognised more than 4,500 companies operating in the field of emerging technologies (DPIIT). On Friday, July 22, Minister of State for Commerce and Industries Som Parkash addressing the current Parliament session said.
The minister added that agritech businesses supported by specific government programmes are working on initiatives that integrate traditional agriculture with related fields like precision farming, digital agriculture, blockchain, IoT, and information communication technology, among others.
In a written response, the minister stated that these recognised startups are involved in fields including robotics, artificial intelligence (AI), analytics, and the Internet of Things (IoT), among others.
4,500 companies operating in the field of emerging technologies (DPIIT)
“These domain specific CoEs are being established pan India with the participation of the central government, software technology parks of India, state government(s), industry partnership and venture capital firms. These CoEs act as important enablers to promote innovation in emerging technologies,” said Parkash.
He also noted that the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) is working to promote startups and innovation in the biotechnology space.
The minister said that the number of recognised startups in the country has increased from 471 in 2016 to 72,993 as of June 30, 2022. These startups are spread across 56 diversified sectors.
Besides, 52 regulatory reforms have been undertaken by the central government in the last six years to ‘enhance ease of doing business and ease of raising capital’ and to reduce compliance burden on startups.
India to promote Biotech Sector Aggressively
To promote innovations in biotechnology sector, the Department of Biotechnology, through Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC), supports and nurtures startups in the Biotechnology sector. The major schemes are BioNEST Scheme (Bio incubators Nurturing Entrepreneurship for Scaling Technologies) and Biotechnology Ignition Grant (BIG) schemes.
Further, Technology Incubation and Development of Entrepreneurs (TIDE) Scheme, launched by Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, has a multi-pronged approach in diverse areas of electronics, information and communications technology and management. It aims to assist institutions of higher learning to strengthen their technology incubation centers and enable young entrepreneurs, startups to initiate technology startup companies for commercial exploitation of technologies developed by them.
