Lucknow will soon have India’s largest international incubation centre spread over 2.5 lakh square feet space. Uttar Pradesh Electronics Corporation, the startup nodal agency, has already identified land opposite CCS Airport in Amausi and is in talks with Software Technology Parks of India (STPI), a Central government organisation, to build and operate this centre.
To expedite the project, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath had written a letter to the Union Ministry of IT and Electronics for roping in STPI to assist the state government in implementing the much awaited project.
The STPI recently made a presentation to the state Industries department.
The UP government has also received a proposal from IIT, Kanpur to establish a Centre of Excellence on Artificial Intelligence in Noida. Moreover, the UP government is working with the STPI to develop IT Parks in various Tier II/III cities like Meerut, Prayagraj, Gorakhpur, Agra, Lucknow, Kanpur Nagar, Bundelkhand, Bareilly, etc.
The Prayagraj IT Park has become operational while the Meerut IT Park is in advance stages of completion and is expected to be operational by November. The Agra and Gorakhpur IT Parks’ construction is also in full swing and is expected to be complete by December, 2020.
The STPI is also assisting the state government in establishing UP’s first Centre of Excellence in MediTech at the Sanjay Gandhi Post-Graduate institute of Medical Sciences in Lucknow.
The UP government has undertaken realignment of the state startup policy in accordance with the startup ranking framework which resulted in the launch of new UP Start-up Policy, 2020. The new Start-up Policy, 2020 aims to be in top 3 states in the state startup ranking in coming years. The policy also has a goal to establish 100 incubators in the state by the year 2025, minimum one in each district, to create a robust infrastructure in UP for the startup culture to flourish.
The new Start-up Policy of UP addresses regional imbalances and gives thrust to the uplift of weaker sections of society to bring them into the mainstream of the business world by offering them additional incentives.
Additional incentives to the tune of 50 per cent have been offered to startups based out of Purvanchal and Bundelkhand regions as well as to those where startup founders/co-founders are woman, divyangjan or from transgender community.