Nasscom launches start-up registry

Industry body feels policy tweaks necessary to nurture ecosystem

National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom) announced the launch of a country-wide start-up registry which is designed to collate information of technology start-ups.

Nasscom, which is also launching the third phase of its ‘10,000 Start-ups’ initiative, said that the registry would act as a discovery platform for investors, enterprises, media, and government authorities.

This platform would also provide start-ups an opportunity to be discoverable for investors, large enterprises, media and government.

Apart from the two new initiatives, the industry body also announced the launch of a skills initiative that is focussed on the tech start-up segment. Nasscom will create courses and modules aimed at imparting skills ranging from in-bound marketing and product management to app development, analytics and user interfaces. A pilot project on this will commence in the next few months, and the courses will be curated by an expert advisory board.

The first two phases, spread over 2013, Nasscom recieved 7,000 applications.

Of these, around 125 are currently under various stages of the start-up process, which includes receiving funding, acceleration and mentoring.

R. Chandrashekhar, President, Nasscom, said that the learning of the past year and insights gained during InnoTrek would be used in planning the third phase.

He said that association would take more delegations abroad and hoped to even build hubs to enable Indian start-ups to go abroad and liaise with investors and the global tech ecosystem.

He also said that hardware major Intel had joined as a partner in addition to existing partners, namely Google, Microsoft, Kotak and Versign.

Intel being a partner had expanded Nasscom’s focus for its start-up programme to include new areas such as the Internet of Things, Mr. Chandrashekar said.

Policy tweaks

Ravi Gururaj, Chairman, Nasscom Product Conclave, emphasised the need to tweak existing policies in order to turn India into a “point of least friction and more nurturing”.

“Currently, VC funds and angel investors are encouraging start-ups to set up overseas. We hope the government will accept our recommendations in this line and help make it easy for them to base out of here,” he said.