New Delhi, Nov 23 (IANS): Aiming to strengthen the startup ecosystem in the country, the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) has launched a call for startup applications for registration on the MAARG portal, the National Mentorship Platform by Startup India.

Officials said that to further boost the Indian startup ecosystem, currently ranked third largest globally, Startup India is focused on catalysing the startup culture and building a strong and inclusive ecosystem for innovation and entrepreneurship in India.

In this context, MAARG portal - Mentorship, Advisory, Assistance, Resilience and Growth, is a one-stop platform to facilitate mentorship for startups across diverse sectors, functions, stages, geographies, and backgrounds.

The objectives of the MAARG portal include providing sector focused guidance, handholding, and support to startups throughout their lifecycle, to establish a formalised and structured platform that facilitates intelligent matchmaking between the mentors and their respective mentees and to facilitate efficient and expert mentorship for startups and build an outcome-oriented mechanism that allows timely tracking of the mentor-mentee engagements.

Startups can now effectively connect with academicians, industry experts, successful founders, seasoned investors, and other experts from across the globe, through Artificial Intelligence (AI) based matchmaking, to get personalised guidance on growth and strategy.

The key features of the portal include customisable mentorship programmes for ecosystem enablers, mobile-friendly user interface, recognition for contributing mentors, video and audio call options, etc.