Three engineers help draft Maha startup policy

THE POLICY AIMS TO FACILITATE 10,000 UNITS ACROSS SECTORS BY SETTING UP INCUBATORS AND TARGETING AN INVESTMENT OF ~5,000 CRORE IN NEXT 5 YEARS

MUMBAI: In a first-of-its-kind initiative, the Maharashtra government decided to take a helping hand from youngsters while drafting its startup policy that got the cabinet’s nod last week.

Three engineers and fellows of the Chief Minister Fellowship Program, 2017, all aged under 26, helped draft the policy for the skill development department.

Tanmay Pai, former IIT Chennai engineer, and Umesh Balwani and Vivek Chirania, former BITS Pilani engineers, engaged with more than 100 stakeholders, including young entrepreneurs, some from their alumni and friend circle, besides angel investors and think-tanks, to finalise the draft policy.

The policy aims to facilitate 10,000 startups across sectors, by setting up 15 incubators and targeting an investment of ~5,000 crore in next five years. It also hopes to provide job opportunities to five lakh youngsters.

“We first heard CM sir talk about the startup policy during a session on changing Maharash- tra. We felt we could really contribute to this initiative given our state’s potential and our background of knowing first hand such entrepreneurs or hav- ing worked in similar set ups. The CMO and the skill department gave us a chance to take this up and held our hand as we prepared an initial draft after studying many similar policies of other states and countries like Israel, where it has been successful,” said Pai, who did a stint with Nomura, a Japanese financial holding company, as an analyst before taking up the fellowship.

Last year, the CMO extended their fellowship by one year.

The draft policy was put in public domain in August 2017 to hear suggestions and objections.

“One big takeaway was that it would be best to identify and build on inherent strengths in any region. So the idea of innovation clusters and sector specific incubators got sharpened like say automative in Pune or fintech in Mumbai,” said Chirania.

“We also realised that a lot of startups look at the government as a market with no access. This led to the idea of a startup week where firms can make a presentation and can even get work orders,” said Balwani. The trio now plan to focus on getting partners for the 15 incubators.