With a policy framework in place to support innovation, start-ups in the country have raised $1.7 billion in the first quarter of this year, Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said on Friday.
“In the first quarter of this year, Indian start-ups raised $1.7 billion, which was 300 per cent more than the $450 million raised in the the first quarter of 2014,” Prasad said during the Digital India Conclave.
The Minister, who addressed the conclave through teleconferencing, said the Narendra Modi Government has tackled a lack of coherent policy framework on developing an enabling environment to support innovation head-on and the results were already visible.
“I am looking forward to the conclave making recommendations on how best we can harness the innovative power of India’s tech talent to not only deliver profits but also inclusive development,” he added.
Speaking during the occasion, DIPP Secretary Amitabh Kant said that for India to move up the knowledge economy value chain, it was imperative that its innovators not just Make In India but also design and create in India. “Only then we will have the disruptive innovation that can drive the kind of economic growth India needs to support the government’s aim of improving lives for all our fellow citizens,” Kant said.