From Our Special Correspondent

Daijiworld Media Network

Belagavi, Dec 22: The State Cabinet, which held its meeting in the Belagavi Suvarna Vidhana Soudha on Thursday with Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai presiding, has approved the Karnataka Start-Up Policy 2022, which aims at facilitating the setting up 25,000 new Start-Ups and give a boost to State’s economy.

Briefing media persons after the State Cabinet meeting, Higher Education Minister Dr C N Ashwath Narayan, who is also holding the charge of IT/BT and Skills Development Departments, said the policy is aimed at playing a vital role in creating an enabling environment across the State for nurturing startups throughout their business lifecycle and make Karnataka a global
innovation hub for start-up.

The salient features of the Start-Up Policy are:

A. Karnataka’s Robust Startup Ecosystem

1) In the new paradigm of digital era, Karnataka’s startup ecosystem has emerged as a critical growth integrator for scaling the State economy’s innovation drive and competitiveness. Karnataka’s burgeoning startup ecosystem has evolved dynamically over the last two decades.

Karnataka holds the crown of India’s Startup Capital with around 15000+ startups and being ranked as the Best Performer State’ in DPIIT’s States’ Startup Ranking 2021 and the TOP Performer position for two consecutive years (2018 and 2019) under the DPIIT’s States’ Startup Ranking

2) Bengaluru’s holistic ecosystem comprising of key enablers such as Funding, Connectedness, Market Reach, Talent + Experience and Knowledge has attributed to the city being ranked 8th and 22nd as per the Global Startup Ecosystem Index 2022 by Startup Blink and Genome Startup Ecosystem Report 2022 respectively, the only Indian City to be featured in top 10 and top 30 respectively.

3) The Department of Electronics, IT&Bt, Government of Karnataka formulated the State’s first Karnataka Startup Policy in 2015.

Through the policy, Government has rolled out several programs with the objective of supporting startups in their business lifecycle — right from providing funding at various stages (seed funding, venture capital funding, angel investor funding and sector- specific funding); incubation support, mentorship, coworking spaces and a dedicated Startup Cell to facilitate the growth of the startups.

The Department has established Innovation Hubs comprising Incubators, Centres of Excellence, Technology & Business Incubators, Common Instrumentation Facilities, New Age Innovation Network (NAIN) Institutions across the State. This ecosystem spans across 24 districts in 58 institutions.

B. Karnataka Startup Policy 2022

1) The Department of Electronics, IT, Bt and S&T has formulated Karnataka Startup Policy 2022-2027 for the State of Karnataka with an overarching aim of positioning Karnataka as the ‘Champion State’ for startups and aims at stimulating the growth of 25,000 startups and further increase the number of high growth startups by 2027.

The Karnataka Startup Policy 2022 has dedicated focus on promoting startups in emerging technology clusters Beyond Bengaluru by creating a conducive environment and offering startups an ideal ecosystem for their growth.

The policy intends to give impetus to encouraging social entrepreneurship / assistive technology innovations and facilitate innovative technology solutions in Social Governance sectors to address the existing social challenges in Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) framework and to meet Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

2) Policy Vision: “To play a vital role in creating an enabling environment across the State for nurturing startups
throughout their business lifecycle and make Karnataka a global innovation hub for startups”.

Policy Objectives:

i. Strengthen the infrastructure set up in Government institutions and support the ecosystem with a greater thrust on emerging clusters Beyond Bengaluru.

ii. Inculcate innovation and entrepreneurial skills in students across all streams of learning and provide opportunities where they can nurture and grow to their full potential.

iii. Stimulate the growth of up whito 25,000 startups and further increase the number of high growth startups.

iv. Encourage social entrepreneurship/assistive technology innovations.

v. Facilitate innovative technology solutions in Social Governance sectors to address the existing social challenges in Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) framework and to meet Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

vi. Support the creation and development of incubation and acceleration infrastructure as key enablers to boost the prevailing startup ecosystem.

vii. Facilitate funding avenues that lead to investment in startups by institutional investors and angel investors and also through Government funding.