Govt plans special scheme to promote startups founded by disadvantaged communities
The government is keen on promoting entrepreneurship among the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe communities.
The Centre is planning to launch a special initiative to encourage entrepreneurship among socially disadvantaged community in the country.
The planned programme called Ambedkar Social Innovation Mission will look to encourage startups founded by the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe community in the country, according to reports.
Towards this end, Centre will set up Rs 100 crore fund to support the startups founded by these disadvantageous communities. This will target the students with the motive to encourage them to run their own business rather than taking up employment, says a report in Economic Times.
The three ministries to be part of this plan will be Ministry of Education, Ministry of Social Welfare and Empowerment, and the Department of Science and Technology.
The startup ideas that get a go-ahead with be funded to the tune of Rs 30 lakh in three years to help translate innovative startup ideas into commercial ventures.
The eligibility for the funding will be mainly based on the recommendation of the Technology Business Incubator run under the aegis of the Department of Science and Technology or reputed private technology business incubator (TBI).
During the incubation period of three years, the entrepreneurs will not have to make any financial contribution except the expenses required for forming a company which would be borne by the entrepreneurs or TBIs. Financial assistance to these startup initiatives will be released to the entities promoted by these young SC entrepreneurs.
The funding for the mission will flow through the Venture Capital Fund for SCs (VCF-SCs) set up in 2016 with a Rs 500 crore corpus.
The Social Welfare and Empowerment Ministry, under whose aegis the VCF-SC was set up, has already modified the relevant government guidelines to ensure equity support to entities/companies of young SC entrepreneurs working on innovative and technology-based ideas.
Edited by Kanishk Singh