Rajasthan plans startup exposure programme for students
The government aims to promote budding entrepreneurs who have good ideas but may not have the experience or knowledge of building a strong business around that idea.
The state information technology and communications department plans to implement a ‘student startup exposure programme’ to help promote startups by college students.
The programme is aimed at increasing the chances of success of startups and will focus on exposure based skill-building to help entrepreneurs become better prepared for business and fund raising.
“The state government plans to support 500 of the top student developers to create startups while in college and provide 100 of them with an opportunity to travel to USA and explore and understand the global startup ecosystem,” a senior official familiar with the matter, said.
“The need for a skill-building program for entrepreneurs was felt as entrepreneurship is a tough endeavour fraught with uncertainty and challenges and it is possible to create programmes that will help young entrepreneurs increase their chances of success,” he said.
The government aims to promote budding entrepreneurs who have good ideas but may not have the experience or knowledge of building a strong business around that idea, the official said.
“The programme is based on the concept that a number of startups shut down because of poor products, but most fail due to lack of knowledge of running a strong business around that product.
“The startup programme is expected to increase the chances of success of startups and give investors the confidence to invest at very early stages.”
The IT department is in the process of selecting an agency for implementation of the startup programme, the official said. “The process of selecting an implementation agency will be completed by March.”
As per official data, Rajasthan has set up more than 600 startups in the last three years of which 23 have received funding of around 142 million US dollars.
In August last year, the government launched grading and ranking system for startups.
Experts, however, say that lack of funding often comes in the way of sustaining startups. “The student startup programme is a good initiative, but we will have to wait and see how the implementation pans out,” A Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) official, who did not wish to be named, said.
“In the past, there have been a number of instances where entrepreneurs from smaller towns have struggled to get the VC (venture capital) funding,” the CII official said.