The Tamil Nadu government will establish an exclusive ‘Startup Mission” for women, Finance Minister Palanivel Thiaga Rajan said on Monday while presenting his budget for 2023-24.
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To support business incubators who propose to specialise in areas like climate tech, rural tech, agri tech and marine tech, StartupTN will assist them in raising funds from various sources to set up Centres of Excellence and will also bear up to 40% of the cost of such upgradation. “A separate vertical will be created in StartupTN to further the incubator eco-system in the state,” he added. Tamil Nadu has one of the largest number of business incubators in the country.
Though the details on how these initiatives will be rolled out was not available immediately, Sivarajah Ramanathan, Mission Director and Chief Executive Officer of Tamil Nadu Startup and Innovation Mission said, “For Tamil Nadu to achieve its target of $1 trillion economy by 2030 – women’s participation is important. This will push more women to get into the startup ecosystem.”
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Vish Sahasranamam, co-founder and CEO, Forge Innovation & Ventures, said, “Good to see intent to expand sphere of impact in the startup ecosystem. Hope to see more ambitious and bolder initiatives, perhaps next year up to 2% of the State’s budget allocated for the startups.”
The Finance Minister said the Tamil Nadu Schedule Caste and Schedule Tribes (SC/ST) Startup Fund, a first of its kind fund for startups, founded and run by entrepreneurs from the SC/ST communities, has been enhanced to ₹50 crore in 2023-24 from ₹30 crore in 2022-23. In January, the Tamil Nadu government sanctioned ₹7.5 crore in equity investments to five startups that were founded and managed by entrepreneurs from the SC/ST communities.
“To promote Tamil Nadu as a global hub for IT/ITeS and to meet the increasing demand for quality office space, the government will establish Tamil Nadu Tech City (TNTech city) at Chennai, Coimbatore and Hosur. To facilitate functioning of IT/ITeS, GCC, FinTech and Startups, the TN Tech city will house centre of excellence, innovation plaza, convention centres, recreation facilities and other necessary infrastructure,” the Finance Minister added.