V'wada selected for MeitY next gen incubation scheme

Visakhapatnam: The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) under the Next Generation Incubation Scheme (NGIS)-a futuristic scheme has selected 12 locations across the country including Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh to focus on innovative IT startups from tier-2 cities, Software Technology Parks of India (STPI)-Hyderabad Director CVD Ram Prasad, has said.

After a courtesy call on Minister for Industries, IT and Commerce Gudivada Amarnath, Ram Prasad and STPI-Vizag Additional Director Suresh Batha here, it was disclosed that with a budgetary outlay of Rs 95.03 crore over the next three years, NGIS targets to incentivise 300 innovative startups with seed-fund of up to Rs 25 lakh each. Under NGIS- Chunauti 1.0 and Chunauti 2.0 (NGIS Challenge Contest), 47 startups are selected from AP.

STPI has recently announced plans to establish an incubation centre on Andhra University premises with a budget of Rs19.75 crore.

"We are waiting for the varsity to provide a half-acre land in the campus to build a 25,000-sq ft building to mentor the startups from the IT/ITeS sector that provide technological solutions to different domains," Ram Prasad informed the Minister.

The STPI has already partnered with Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd (RINL) to set up a Centre of Entrepreneurship (CoE) in Industry 4.0 Technologies at Visakhapatnam Steel Plant campus with an outlay of Rs 20.32 crore.