DPIIT Working With Top 100 Listed Firms For Manufacturing Incubators For Startups
The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade is also planning to launch 75 corporate grant challenges to support startups with prototypes and pilot orders.
The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade is working to deepen collaboration between India's top corporates and startups by setting up manufacturing incubators with help from listed firms and launching grant-based challenges.
"We expect more products to come up from startups in the next five years," DPIIT Secretary Amardeep Singh Bhatia said at a press conference at the ninth anniversary of Startup India. "We have a large number of service providers, but products are something we're looking forward to. Especially, in the manufacturing space, we want to see more."
The department has also reached out to the top 100 listed firms of India to seek support for setting up incubators for manufacturing startups. It is also planning to launch 75 corporate grant challenges to support startups with prototypes and pilot orders, since getting initial support in terms of orders are areas of concern for small startups.
Taking a cue from the West, Bhatia said they are working towards building manufacturing incubators with support from companies like Shree Cement, JSW, Volvo, Borosil, ITC, Yokohama, Merck, Johnson Controls, Quant Solar, Michelin, Shiprocket and HCL Software.
"In the West, corporate houses drive the startup ecosystem through grants. We're requesting manufacturing firms to come with specific asks, startups will solve those for grants, orders," he said.
The department is working on increasing market access for startups via government entities and schemes like Government e-Marketplace, Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council, Atal Innovation Mission, Nidhi Prayas and IDEX.
Reverse Flipping
He added that startups are increasingly coming back to India, and that the abolition of angel tax abolition has helped.
"The equity market is also seeing the impact of reverse flipping. The Ministry of Corporate Affairs has also expedited the process," said Sanjiv, joint secretary in DPIIT.
Reverse flipping is a trend, which has seen many Indian startups return to the country after having initially registered their base abroad due to taxation ease and valuations. Companies like Pine Labs, Razorpay and Zepto have either flipped or are in the process of now returning to India due to government's initiatives around ease of doing business.
