The role of administration is critical in building a favourable start-up milieu, according to Aruna Sundararajan, Telecom Secretary, Government of India.

“Maintaining global yardsticks will be a key challenge start-ups will face in future. They won’t be able to achieve the desired results without the government creating ideal ecosystems,” she said inaugurating Hardtech ’19, a two-day National Deeptech Startup Conclave.

At the event organised by Maker Village, an electronic hardware incubator, she said a system that integrated talent, market, entrepreneurship, industry relations and investment possibilities is needed. “India has the greatest pool of start-ups; the general outlook is optimistic. Entrepreneurs are coming up by overcoming difficult situations,” she added.

She also launched an automated Neera tapping machine, developed by NAVA Design and Innovation Pvt Ltd and designed at Maker Village.

M Sivasankar, IT Secretary, Government of Kerala, said the hardware sector needs to overcome its problems regarding materials and design. “Maker Village, in this respect, can utilise the backbone projects in the start-up sector such as the Kerala Fibre Optic Network, a space start-up project by the ISRO and VSSC, and Intel laptop manufacturing project,” he added.

Madhavan Nambiar, Chairman, Maker Village, said that funding is the “oxygen” that drives start-ups.

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