MSH aims to onboard 10,000 start-ups from 3,000 currently in next 3-4 years

MSH has launched schemes with total corpus of Rs 700 crore, intends to bring corporate and national start-up mentorship ecosystems on a single digital platform

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) plans to increase the number of tech start-ups supported under the MeitY Start-Up Hub (MSH) from 3,000 currently to 10,000 in the coming 3-4 years, the Ministry said in an interactive session organized by MSH on Tuesday.

MSH was created as a national platform focused on promoting technology innovation, start-ups and the creation of intellectual properties, the Ministry said in a statement.

MSH has launched schemes with a total corpus of about Rs 700 crore to aid start-ups in the country, said AK Garg, Senior Director of MeitY. He added that MSH intends to bring the corporate and national start-up mentorship ecosystems together on a single digital platform.

Currently, MSH is partnered with 20 corporate accelerators across the country to run accelerator programmes for start-ups, revealed Garg.

MeitY has also boosted the capabilities of the Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) to support start-ups through the Next Generation Incubation Scheme (NGIS), Garg added. Twelve STPI centres in tier-2 locations are currently supporting some 300 start-ups.

Twenty-six Centres of Excellence (CoE) with state and industry partnerships have been established nationwide to support targeted entrepreneurship in various sectors, the Ministry revealed.

Under the Technology Incubation and Development of Entrepreneurs (TIDE) scheme, MeitY established 51 individual centres and institutes of higher learning and research, said Garg. “A total funding of around Rs 51 lakh from the government is available to each start-up under this scheme,” he added.

Alkesh Kumar Sharma, Secretary of MeitY said, “We would like to see each one of you to be our next unicorns in the coming years,” he said addressing the start-ups attending the session.

These announcements came after PM Narendra Modi launched the deeptech start-up platform Digital India GENESIS (Gen-Next Support for Innovative Start-ups) last month to scale up and sustain the tech ecosystem.