Report on venture capital and private equity launched by IIT Madras

CHENNAI: Indian Institute of Technology Madras has released its ninth annual report on the state of Indian venture capital and private equity with a focus on ‘The State & the Start-up: Analysis of government policies and support for start-ups’.

The 2017 report analyses the policy framework and support provided to start-ups by central and state governments as well as other governmental agencies. The report was released at TIECON Chennai 2017, the Annual Entrepreneurship Conference of TIE Chennai recently.

Some of the key findings are as follows.

Certain start-ups were promoted as a tools to achieve goals across social sectors. These include initiatives by the Union ministries of Rural Development, social justice and empowerment.

Further certain priority sectors such as health and clean technology were identified to bring in innovation and growth in these sectors.

Out of the 29 Indian States, 22 formally came out with policies that were targeted at start-ups in the last three years.

Cumulatively, the state governments policies envisage creation of incubation space of 5.1 million square feet, 48,000 startups, and Investment of close to Rs. 34,000 crore of venture funding by 2022.

Since 2016, at least 10 public sector units (PSUS) have launched their start-up support programs.

The aggregate initial outlay of all the PSUS for start-up funding is around Rs.400 crore.

The Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) expects to support, by the end of 2017, around 100 incubatees in Five CSIR laboratories.

The PSUS and CSIR labs are supporting start-ups in those sectors that are either capital intensive or very niche.

Further, very little venture funding for sectors like oil and gas as well as food technology has been available.

ebasta

Attuned to the Digital India initiative, this programme aims to make e-books accessible to all. As a part of this initiative, the government has tied up with various publishers to make educational content available on tablets and laptops. It also facilitates a platform where all the content resources can be managed.

saransh

CBSE launched this web portal with the aim of promoting effective communication between schools and parents. This review tool helps the parents to evaluate their wards’ strengths and weaknesses

Measuring impact

Equal education opportunities: Shortage of quality teachers has often been attributed to as the reason for poor quality of education being imparted to students. And, the problem is more pertinent in rural areas. However, technology-based education does not discriminate between rural and urban areas and holds the promise of mitigating these issues.

Learning fun and interactive: Rote learning, plaguing the Indian education system for ages, has demotivated both students and teachers. Tech-enabled education makes learning fun and interactive, thus holding students’ attention longer.