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After Mohali, Amritsar may soon be a hub of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Punjab as the much-awaited state-of-the-art second centre of Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) is likely to become operational shortly.

“The facility is ready and soon it will be inaugurated. Since the STPI is working on the modalities to bring in IT/ITes companies to tier-II and III cities, this will be a step in that direction,” said STPI Director General Arvind Kumar, who was in the city to participate in the seventh edition of the North India’s biggest startup and Entrepreneurial Event TieCon 22.

For the growth of the IT sector in the region, the ecosystem should focus on new start-up units as well as big IT companies. Due to the high cost of land, small new IT units are unable to start operations. So this incubation facility in Amritsar will go a long way in promoting entrepreneurship in the region. The STPI at Mohali registered an export turnover of Rs 5,000 crore last fiscal.

Currently, there are 42 start-ups registered with Startup Punjab. Secretary-cum-Director Industries and Commerce, Punjab, Sibin C, said the number may look small, but the quality of start-up was amazing.

To foster start-ups, the state has already established Innovation Mission Punjab, a unique public-private partnership to bring in leading global investors and experts to catalyse the start-up ecosystem in the state. The mission intends to unleash Punjab’s growth potential and create a thriving economy that generates jobs. To fund the start-ups, an innovation fund of Rs 150 crore had also been created, Sibin added.

What’s in for entrepreneurs

• Spread over 40,000 sq ft, the STPI centre will offer facilities such as plug and play, incubation, data centre
• It will encourage IT/ITes entrepreneurs to set up shop and start operations in the region
• The software park at Mohali registered an export turnover of Rs 5,000 crore last fiscal

STPI is also putting up 25 domain specific centres of entrepreneurship of which 20 are already in place and five are in the process of approval.

Software and service exports from units registered at the centres of the Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) are estimated to have crossed Rs 5 lakh crore in 2021-22, continuing with the growth trend of the last five years.

Exports from the STPI units were Rs 4.96 lakh crore in 2020-21 and Rs 4.66 lakh crore in 2019-20 according to a  government disclosure.

Exports from STPI centres in Bengal are estimated at Rs 7,500 crore in 2021-22, up from Rs 7,200 crore in 2020-21. STPI is an autonomous body under the Union ministry of electronics and information technology.

Arvind Kumar, who has joined STPI as the director general from his previous role as an adviser in Trai, said there has been no impact of the pandemic on exports from STPI units.

“Covid did not have much effect on the IT sector and the industry immediately adopted the work from home policy. Our expectation this year in terms of exports from the STPI units is that it would be more than Rs 5 lakh crore,” Kumar said on the sidelines of STPI export awards in Bengal.

Kumar said there has been a shift in the focus of the government towards software product development in the country and STPI has been tasked to put up the infrastructure and implement the schemes to incubate more startups. “We have already started boarding startups under the Next Generation Incubation Scheme where the target is to incentivise 300 startups with seed fund of upto Rs 25 lakh,” he said.

STPI is also putting up 25 domain specific centres of entrepreneurship of which 20 are already in place and five are in the process of approval. “The plan is to increase the market share in software products and the centre for entrepreneurship will play a key role in that,” said Kumar adding that there is a plan to nurture around 1,900 plus startups across various emerging technology domains in five years.

He further said the government is working on a scheme whereby existing software majors will be incentivised to move towards tier 2 and tier 3 cities.

“Government is working on the scheme and STPI’s role will be to implement and handhold the industry,” said Kumar.

Debashis Sen, MD WBHIDCO, Rajeev Kumar, principal secretary, department of information technology and electronics, Bengal government and Manjit Nayak, director STPI, Calcutta were also present at the export awards.

* Through this collaboration, STPI's financial technology incubator FinBlue and IIT Madras’ incubation cell would jointly incubate fintech start-ups at different stages.
* Workshops, hackathons, training, and events would be conducted to draw entrepreneurial interest to further strengthen the fintech start-up ecosystem.

The incubation cells at Indian Institute of Technology Madras and Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) have come together to develop an ecosystem to identify and support financial technology start-ups in the country.

STPI’s AIC STPI NEXT manages the FinBlue Financial Technology Centre of Excellence in Chennai.

Through this collaboration, STPI's financial technology incubator FinBlue and IIT Madras’ incubation cell would jointly incubate start-ups at different stages, developing solutions in financial technology, a press release said.

Workshops, hackathons, training, and events would be conducted to draw entrepreneurial interest to further strengthen the fintech start-up eco system.

"STPI has very domain-specific centres for entrepreneurship, fintech is one of them which is focused on all kinds of financial technologies. We'd like to work together through FinBlue to find the brightest ideas in the fintech arena,” STPI director general Arvind Kumar said.

The collaboration marks another key development in IIT Madras research park vision of ‘Fintech for Inclusion’, a communique from the institute said.

"Majority of the population in the country still do not have access to traditional financial services. Fintech start-ups can intervene in boosting financial inclusion by leveraging the existing financial eco system and emerging technologies," said Ashok Jhunjhunwala, a professor at the IIT-Madras research park.

The start-ups would receive mentorship from industry experts, training, access to a large network of banking and financial institutions, among others.

Public sector Indian Overseas Bank on Friday signed a memorandum of understanding with the Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) and STPINEXT (a Section 8 company of STPI) for leveraging innovation through the financial technologies engaged under the FinBlue initiative.

The MoU was signed in the presence of IOB Managing Director and CEO Partha Pratim Sengupta and STPI Director General Arvind Kumar, the Chennai-headquartered bank said in a statement.

"This MoU will help the bank in leveraging innovation through the financial technologies engaged under the FinBlue initiative," the statement said.

The FinBlue initiative by STPI is an integrated programme to start-ups to scale through its incubation facility. It provides access to the financial technology ecosystem that consists of bankers, financial institutions, mentors, investors among others.