Chandigarh administration's dedicated startup policy 'soon'

Chandigarh, August 30

To meet the requirements of local budding entrepreneurs, the UT Administration will soon come up with a startup policy to help them set up own ventures in the city. Presently, startups in the city have to register on the Central Government portal.

“We are keen on creating a robust ecosystem to promote innovation in businesses. Chandigarh will soon come up with its own startup policy, a dedicated hub, a seed fund with a corpus of Rs 50 crore, and more,” said UT Adviser Dharam Pal, while speaking at the ‘Chandigarh Startups Session’, organised by the CII Northern Region as part of its flagship initiative ICONN-2022 today.

The Adviser said a draft scheme had already been published to invite comments and suggestions from stakeholders. “We are looking at data from the economic census, private research platforms, ministerial press releases, Startup India’s official portal, industry reports, media articles, and views from the key stakeholders to come up with a better policy than before so that government efforts to transform the economy of Chandigarh through entrepreneurship policies do not fail to live up to the expectations of its startups,” he added.

The Adviser stated many entrepreneurs from the city had started successful startups such as Flipkart, which became one of the early unicorns in the country. The city of just 10 lakh people is home to about 558 startups, he added.

Delivering the keynote address, Kris Gopalakrishnan, chairman, CII Centre of Excellence on Start-Ups & Entrepreneurship, and co-founder, Infosys Ltd, said: “It is the collective responsibility of the industry, high-net-worth individuals (angel investors), academic institutions, and the government to work together to build a robust startup ecosystem in any state or city. We need to nurture startups in new and innovative areas along with strengthening and growing the startup ecosystem in Chandigarh. The UT will also have to work with Punjab and Haryana to effectively utilise resources in the surrounding areas.”

“The success of young entrepreneurs today will be the key to India’s transformation. Startups, technology, and innovation are the three pillars on which Chandigarh will be focusing its efforts in building a startup ecosystem. Along with Startup India, we must give the slogan of ‘Standup India’, and therein lies our strength,” shared Hargunjit Kaur, Secretary Industries, UT.

Highlighting CII’s role in promoting startups, Rajiv Kaila, Chairman, CII Chandigarh & Director, Kaila Engineering Pvt Ltd, said: “To enable the corporate-startup cooperation to flourish, the CII has taken some specific initiatives, including setting up a dedicated Centre of Excellence (COE) for Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Startups in Hyderabad. The CII is currently working with 90 startups, directly and indirectly, towards helping these with a 5x revenue growth. The COE shall also conduct master classes for government officials on how to work with startups.”

Greater UT Region next hub?

• Chandigarh has been ranked as an aspiring leader in developing a strong startup ecosystem in its third edition of the States’ Startup Ranking
• The UT Industries Department is the nodal agency responsible for the development of the startup ecosystem
• The Greater Chandigarh Region has potential to become the next hub of startups. This has been supported by enabling ecosystem comprising incubation centres, educational and research institutes of repute, etc.

Chandigarh home to 558 ventures

• Many entrepreneurs had started successful startups such as Flipkart, which became one of the early unicorns. The city of just 10 lakh people is home to 558 startups
• In past few years, city-based startups such as Jugnoo, Pumpkart, Edurev, Trideal, Paymart have been backed by likes of Kalaari Capital, Omnivore, Wipro Consumer Care Ventures, Indian Angel Network, etc
• The success story of the Chandigarh-Panchkula-Mohali Tricity came into the spotlight in July 2020 when PrepLadder was acquired by the Edutech giant Unacademy for $50 bn

Rs 50-cr seed fund

We will create a robust ecosystem for promoting innovation in businesses. UT will soon have own startup policy, a dedicated hub and seed fund with a corpus of Rs 50 crore or more. — Dharam Pal, UT Adviser