Govt targets 1,000 startups by SC students in 4 years; launches new support programme

Social Justice and Empowerment Minister Thawar Chand Gehlot on Wednesday launched a programme to boost innovation among scheduled caste (SC) students under the Venture Capital Fund for SCs. The programme titled Ambedkar Social Innovation and Incubation Mission (ASIIM) would intend to encourage SC students studying in higher educational institutions to innovate and become entrepreneurs. Under the fund, which was launched in early 2015 to back startups and small businesses by SC entrepreneurs, 117 businesses have been “sanctioned financial assistance,” Ministry of Social Justice & Empowerment said in a statement. The government is targeting to identify 1,000 SC youth having startup ideas under the ASIIM programme in the coming four years through the Technology Business Incubators (TBIs) in different higher educational institutions.

Selected aspiring SC student entrepreneurs will receive equity infusion of Rs 30 lakhs in three-year duration while ventures succeeding ahead would “further qualify for venture funding of up to Rs 5 crore from the Fund,” the ministry added. Gehlot said that the programme would help students become job-givers from job-seekers and would further give a fillip to the Stand Up India initiative of PM Modi. The venture fund set-up with the size of Rs 500 crore has sanctioned investment worth Rs 444.14 crore to businesses, according to the statement. The budget of the programme launched for the next four years has been kept at Rs 193.20 crore.

Also read: ECLGS: Micro firms get maximum loans from banks under credit guarantee scheme; medium units ‘bypassed’

Meanwhile, the government procurement from SC/ST owned micro and small businesses (MSE) in FY21 so far stood at Rs 240.54 crore benefitting 1,879 such MSEs out of the overall MSE procurement worth Rs 10,202 crore from 49,922 MSEs so far, according to the public procurement monitoring portal MSME Sambandh. In FY20, the government had bought goods and services worth Rs 685 crore from 6,309 SC/ST owned MSEs while in FY19, the procurement was worth Rs 824.71 crore from 4,587 SC/ST MSEs.