In line with the Finance Minister’s Budget speech this year, the government on Wednesday launched a scheme to promote start-ups in the agro industry sector with a corpus of Rs 200 crore.
Under the scheme, a framework for start-up promotion will be created through the Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) by using means of finance, such as equity, quasi-equity, angel funds, venture capital funds, impact funds, among others. A fund of funds will be created under SIDBI for the purpose and Rs 60 crore has been earmarked for the same, the Ministry of Medium, Small and Micro Enterprises (MSME) said.
The Ministry also announced the setting up of 500 new incubation centres across India by next year.
Launching the scheme here, MSME Minister Kalraj Mishra said the scheme was formulated to set up a network of technology and incubation centres to accelerate entrepreneurship and promote start-ups for innovation and entrepreneurship in agro-industry.
As a first step, the scheme will create a database of technologies available with various Government/private agencies and set up a Network of Technology Centres for handholding of prospective entrepreneurs of MSME sector, Mishra said.
The second component is to develop the required skilled human resources necessary for mentoring and handholding incubatees. Under this, special efforts will be made to identify, support and expand the role of competitive Indian MSMEs in a global economy.
“Capacity building including awards, surveys, studies, exposure visits, engagement of consultants including monitoring and evaluation will be conducted with an estimated expenditure of Rs 17.75 crore,” according to a Ministry statement.
The third component is to set up Livelihood Business Incubators (LBI) under the National Small Industries Corporation (NSIC), KVIC or Coir Board among others to replicate the NSIC’s model of "Rapid Incubation Centres", which is a mix of "promotion of entrepreneurship and skill development" and involves setting up of live "demo projects".
The total allocated budget under this head would be Rs 62.50 crore for setting up 80 LBIs, skilling a targeted 10,400 youth over three years.