Nasscom initiative to catalyse 10,000 start-up in next 10 years

IT-ITeS industry body Nasscom yesterday unveiled a programme that envisages the launch of 10,000 start-ups in the next 10 years.

The programme aimed at incubating, funding and supporting technology start-ups in the country is partnered by Indian Angel Network and supported by Google, Microsoft and Verisign, Nasscom said in a release.

The release added that the initiative would focused on multiple activities aimed at fostering entrepreneurship, building entrepreneurial capabilities at scale and providing robust early stage support through incubation mentorship and angel funding.

According to Nasscom president Som Mittal the programme would create an impact on employment, GDP, innovation and entrepreneurship indices. He added, this was one of the largest initiatives that Nasscom was undertaking and one which would be vital to realise the industry vision of $300 billion by 2020.

The initiative was launched at an event called 'Catalysing Tech Start-ups in India' held in New Delhi yesterday.

Mittal said that 10,000 start-ups was focused on catalysing the technology start-up landscape by 5X and creating a significant national impact on employment , GDP, innovation and entrepreneurship indices.

As per one estimate from Nasscom, there has been a three-fold growth in the number of Indian startups from 162 companies in 2006, to 450 companies as of last year.

Though it was not clear how Nasscom defined startups, according to some estimates, the overall number was now significantly higher. The Nasscom estimate puts Bangalore accounting for 27 per cent of startups at the head of the league, followed by NCR and Mumbai at 24 per cent and 15 per cent respectively.

Around 32 per cent of the startups focused on cloud and big data space, 29 per cent in education and 14 per cent in ecommerce.

Rajan Anandan, MD of Google India said, with over 150 million internet users and the numbers growing, the internet in India presented enormous opportunities for innovation and entrepreneurship.

He added, Nasscom would work closely with Nasscom and all the players in the ecosystem to boot rate of technology innovation in India.