Union Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Nirmala Sitharaman announced here on Friday she will contribute ₹1.18 crore from her Member of Parliament Local Area Development fund, to a start-up incubation centre to be set up in Mangaluru.

The Dakshina Kannada district administration and the Kanara Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) are planning to set up the centre to encourage a start-up ecosystem in Mangaluru.

Jeevan Saldanha, President, KCCI, said an incubation centre or a co-working space in the city’s central business district is in much demand from start-ups. The KCCI and the district administration have identified a 6,000 sqft area at Mallikatta area here. The proposed centre will have around 70 seats and will accommodate 15-20 start-ups depending upon the number of people employed, Saldanha said.

More than 150 IT and IT-enabled services firms are situated in and around Mangaluru.

Saldanha said the incubation centre will provide start-ups with an IT ecosystem with mentoring from Nasscom. The KCCI has already held discussions with Nasscom in this regard, he said. During her visit to Mangaluru on Friday, Sitharaman had stated that she, with the help of NITI Ayog, has taken initiatives to set up innovation hubs at the National Institute of Technology Karnataka in Mangaluru and at Nitte Mahalinga Adyanthaya Memorial Institute of Technology in Udupi district.

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