In a bid to promote start-up companies and to find technology-enabled solutions for various departments, the State government has allowed all departments and agencies to directly place work orders for mobile apps with the start-ups under the Kerala Startup Mission.
Each purchasing officer can buy up to two mobile applications in a year from an entrepreneur, with the maximum cost of each set at ₹5 lakh.
Information Technology Secretary M. Sivasankar called it a landmark order in an interaction with start-up entrepreneurs and investors as part of the Seeding Kerala event organised by the Mission at the Technopark here on Saturday.
“At the beginning of the shift to information technology, the government instead of looking towards IT companies, tried to look at public sector companies to lead the e-governance movement. But now, a change in outlook has happened and the youth who are at the cutting edge of technology have a lot to contribute to government departments,” said Mr. Sivasankar.
He said that some of the mobile applications presented at the event, including the one related to hyper local retail sales of consumer goods, had tremendous potential as far as the government was concerned.
“The mobile applications that the government are looking for are not some aesthetically designed ones. The government departments already have numerous such websites and applications. The applications henceforth have to provide a comprehensive solution which fixes an issues,” said Mr. Sivasankar.
The government has also started organising a “demo day” once in a month for start-ups to display their mobile applications, which would be of interest to various departments. Separately, an “idea day” will be organised, where start-ups could pitch new ideas for further development.
“From the government side, as far as support for the start-up ecosystem goes, we have practically reached the limit. The market has to take care of investments. The government can do things to increase visibility,” he said.
Jayasankar Prasad, CEO of Kerala Startup Mission, said the past year had been a fabulous one for start-ups in Kerala.
“In the last two years, the mission could channelise investments worth ₹540 crore for start-ups,” he said.
