Maha govt forms committee for biz acceleration in Mumbai

Incubation centre to provide training to 60 entrepreneurs annually

The Maharashtra Government has set up a 12-member committee headed by the Development Commissioner for the establishment and functioning of Business Accelerator/ Incubation Centre in Mumbai in collaboration with Cornell University, Ithaca, New York (USA). Professors of Cornell University will mentor entrepreneurs from Maharashtra for the next three years as part of a tie-up between the state government and the Cornell University. Both had signed MoU in December last year whereby the Maharashtra government will invest Rs 7 crore in the programme.

The incubation centre will provide training to the entrepreneurs from the open category, SC/ST category and women entrepreneurs. For the centre, a 13,000 sq ft space at the Reliance Corporate Park in Ghansoli MIDC in Navi Mumbai has been finalised.

The committee will be responsible for the formulation of an action plan to make the proposed incubation centre a world class facility and carry out its functioning. It will strengthen the Industry-Academic Institutional Linkages through the Incubation Centre, to provide high quality guidance to the trainees, to guide them in their endeavours for the successful completion of the project. Sixty entrepreneurs will receive training, guidance and financial and administrative support every year at the incubation centre from the university. Entrepreneurs holding a domicile certificate in Maharashtra will be able to take part in the programme. Those participating will get a certificate from Cornell University. Logistics support for the programme will be rendered by Singapore’s XED Institute of Management, which is Cornell’s partner for Asia. The committee in association with XED Institute of Management will decide a working system to enlist the help of other financial institutions to provide similar facilities like Venture Fund / Angel Fund for investment in the projects by trainees.

In order to provide maximum publicity to successful start-up industries and to make them aware of their work at the international level, the project will be funded by foreign companies and investors. The committee will take necessary steps to make the start-up industry commercially successful by taking measures to make their products / services available to the market.