In a major boost to Punjab’s startup ecosystem, Industry and Commerce Minister Sanjeev Arora on Saturday announced that the state government has removed the upper limit on startup funding approvals for this year, pledging to clear all eligible applicants. “We had disbursed ₹6 crore to startups last year, and this year there is no upper limit, we shall approve all eligible startups,” Arora declared on the second day of TiECON’26
Arora also announced that seed money for startups has been enhanced from ₹5 lakh to ₹15 lakh, and underlined Mohali’s emergence as the Silicon Valley of Punjab as central to the state’s IT ambitions. He flagged AI driven startups for MSME units and affordable public healthcare as the two most urgent areas for investor attention, noting that MSMEs contribute nearly 30% of India’s GDP and employ over 30 crore people.
The announcements were echoed by former Union Minister Anurag Thakur, who addressed the gathering with a broader national canvas. Citing India’s rise to the world’s fourth largest economy with a GDP of $4.18 trillion. Thakur also noted that India’s startup revolution was no longer confined to metros, with tier 2 and tier 3 cities now driving the bulk of new registrations, a trend very much in evidence at TiECON itself, where startups from across Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh took the floor. Arora, meanwhile, left entrepreneurs with a clear direction, “AI startups for MSME units and affordable public healthcare these are the areas where the next big opportunities lie.”