The Central government has approved six proposals to set up centres of excellence to promote and fund start-ups under the National Initiative for Development and Harnessing Innovation (NIDHI).
The proposals for six centres of excellence that were approved by the National Expert Advisory Committee include: SINE-IIT Bombay, Venture Center-NCL Pune, CIIE-IIM Ahmedabad and a research park at IIT-Gandhinagar.
The government has earmarked ₹500 crore to scale up the start-up eco system, under which seed funding of up to ₹10 lakh will be given to develop a prototype and access fabrication facilities in incubators.
Thereafter the department will also help connect the innovators with angel investors and venture capitalists. The department has already held camps to promote NIDHI in 4,000 colleges.