Odisha ranked as top performer in Start-up

Bhubaneswar: Odisha has been ranked as the top performer in Start-up ranking at the national level in 2018, said an official on Friday.

The Union Department for Promotion of Industry and International Trade has ranked the start-up performance of States in 2018.

Revealing this, the chief secretary Asit Tripathy Friday said the launching of Start-up in the State has increased by 84% in 2017-18 over 2015-16 against the national growth of around 62%.

Tripathy advised the concerned departments to augment the Startup Ecosystem in the State by filling up the critical gaps through convergence so as to attract private venture capitals for Odisha Startups.

Tripathy said the government would create a quality venture fund and would accelerate growth by providing easy access to the fund by Odisha startups.

Industries secretary Hemant Sharma said that so far 500 start-ups have been registered from among which 57% have been incorporated during and after the year 2017.

Among the incorporated units, 150 are led by women which are around 30% of the total. Presently 13 incubator centres are operating in Odisha including IIT, Bhubaneswar, NIST, NIIT, KIIT, Ravi Shankar University.

Sharma said that the Odisha Start-up Policy has set the target to launch 1,000 start-ups by the end of March 2021.

The meeting committed Rs 100 crore to the State Start-up Fund over a period of three to five years as per requirement. The meeting also resolved to mobilise venture funds from the private and corporate sectors for constituting ‘Fund of Funds’ for start-ups in Odisha.