Panaji, Dec 2 (PTI): The Goa government aims to double the number of incubation centres in the state by 2020 providing the working space for incubating 200 companies, a senior functionary has said.

The Goa State Innovation Council (GSINC) has been formed with the mandate to encourage more incubation centres, specially in the institutes providing technological education.

"The Council is on the drive to double the number of incubation centres in the State from existing seven to fifteen by the year 2020.

"The incubation Centres that are existing in Goa are working on Information Technology (IT) and IT-Enabled Services (ITES) besides few in food processing sector," GSINC chairman Jose Manuel Noronha told PTI.

"It would be possible when we set up these centres across all the institutes in the State providing technology education like engineering colleges, polytechnic colleges and others," he said.

The current centres spread across the state are incubating around 100 companies, and with the doubling of them, the number would touch 200 by 2020, he said.

The, council which was set up in the year 2016, has drawn a roadmap for 2020 for which it has been holding seminars, workshops, lectures on innovation at the places like Goa University, colleges, higher education istitutions, medium and small scale industries and research and development industries.

Noronha said Goa currently has seven centres, including two centres for Incubation and Business Acceleration (CIBA) and one centre each at Don Bosco, Economic Development Corporation's Inspire, Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Goa Institute of Management and Manovikas School.

The Centre has invested Rs 10 crore in each incubation centre which would be provided to them over the next five years, he said, adding that these centres give seed capital to the beneficiaries.

"The government should make it mandatory for all the technical institutes and science-based colleges to have incubation centres, which will help in growth of this idea," Noronha added.