Startup Mahakumbh | Deeptech policy in final stages of consultations: DPIIT secretary, ET Retail

[ad_1]

<p>"Government in process of creating dedicated deeptech startup policy," says DPIIT Secretary RK Singh</p> — “Government in process of creating dedicated deeptech startup policy,” says DPIIT Secretary RK Singh

Deeptech startup policy in the final stages of inter-ministerial consultations, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) secretary RK Singh said at Startup Mahakumbh, a three-day startup industry event being held in New Delhi from March 18.

“What really matters in startups is its ability to commercialise and develop intellectual property rights (IPR). It’s not enough to only innovate, you should be able to convert it into IPR which is of long-term benefit to the country and to yourself. Deeptech and extensive research and development would be the answer to that,” said Singh.

The deeptech policy aims to support startups operating in the high-end technology space across several sectors such as artificial intelligence, internet of things, space technology and machine learning.

“Hopefully, you’ll soon see a separate window for deeptech startups,” Singh added.

“Think of deeptech as the key required to unlock the accelerated growth potential of India. The ecosystem which is going to unlock that key is the startup economy,” said Debjani Ghosh, president of technology industry body Nasscom.

While emphasising that the future lies in deeptech, India’s G20 sherpa Amitabh Kant said, “We will need a big deeptech fund of funds, which will deploy resources into alternate investment funds (AIFs), because much of the startup movement’s success story has been because we were able to create the fund of funds.”

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had in Budget 2024 announced that a new scheme will be launched for strengthening deep-tech technologies for defence purposes and expediting ‘Atmanirbharta’ or self-reliance.

Meanwhile, the Startup Mahakumbh event is expected to see participation from more than 40 unicorn startups, or those valued at over $1 billion, including founders of companies such as Lenskart, Boat, Dream11, Oyo, Razorpay, Zerodha, Acko, Moglix, Urban Company and Nykaa.

The event is being jointly organised with collaborative efforts of Assocham, Nasscom, Bootstrap Incubation and Advisory Foundation, TiE and Indian Venture and Alternate Capital Association (IVCA). It is also supported by the DPIIT, MeitY Startup Hub (MSH) and Invest India.