75 Young Odisha Innovators Get Free Incubation Offer

Bhubaneswar: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Friday distributed free incubation offers among 75 young innovators under the Startup India-Odisha Yatra at Jaydev Bhawan here.

Congratulating the awardees, the Chief Minister announced that the number of startups registered with Startup Odisha Initiative has crossed 200 across various sectors. “About 23 of these startups are already getting assistance from Startup Odisha,” he said.

Stating that the state government has made certain amendments in the Startup Odisha Policy to further encourage innovators and young entrepreneurs, the CM expressed hope that the state will be able to achieve the vision of supporting 1,000 startups by 2020.

“I had launched the Startup India-Odisha Yatra on January 30. I am glad to know that the yatra van could impact around 10, 00 youths across 50 academic institutions. I am also happy to know that during the yatra, 3, 600 ideas were received, out of which 125 were shortlisted for the accelerator programme. Today, 75 of them are getting incubation offers from different incubators namely IIT Bhubaneswar, STPI, KIIT University, Centurion University and many other institutions,” Naveen added.

Among others, MSME minister Prafulla Samal, chief secretary Aditya Prasad Padhi and senior government officials were present.