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Dharam Pal, Adviser to the Administrator, Chandigarh on Tuesday said that the union territory will soon come up with its own startup policy. Speaking at the ‘Chandigarh Startups Session’ organised by CII Northern Region as part of its flagship initiative, ICONN 2022, Pal said, “We are keen to create a robust ecosystem for promoting innovation in businesses. Chandigarh will soon come up with its own startup policy, a dedicated startup hub, a seed fund with a corpus of Rs 50 crore, and more. A draft scheme has already been published to invite comments and suggestions from stakeholders.”

“We are looking at data from the economic census, private research platforms, ministerial press releases, Startup India’s official portal, industry reports, media articles, and views from the key stakeholders to come up with a better policy than before so that government efforts to transform the economy of Chandigarh through entrepreneurship policies do not fail to live up to the expectations of its startups,” he added.

Delivering the keynote address, Kris Gopalakrishnan, Chairman, CII Centre of Excellence on Start-Ups & Entrepreneurship and Co-Founder, Infosys Ltd said, “It is the collective responsibility of the industry, high net-worth individuals (angel investors), academic institutions, and the government to work together to build a robust startup ecosystem in any state or city. We need to nurture startups in new and innovative areas along with strengthening and growing the startup ecosystem in Chandigarh. The UT will also have to work with Punjab and Haryana to effectively utilise resources in the surrounding areas.”

“The success of young entrepreneurs today will be the key to India’s transformation. Startups, technology, and innovation are the three pillars on which Chandigarh will be focusing its efforts in building a startup ecosystem. Along with Startup India, we must give the slogan of Standup India, and therein lies our strength,” said Hargunjit Kaur, Secretary Industries, Chandigarh Administration.

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Highlighting CII’s role in promoting startups, Rajiv Kaila, Chairman, CII Chandigarh UT & Director, Kaila Engineering Pvt Ltd said, “To enable the corporate–startup cooperation to flourish, CII has taken some specific initiatives, including setting up a dedicated Centre of Excellence (CoE) for innovation, entrepreneurship and startups in Hyderabad. CII is currently working with 90 startups directly and indirectly, working towards helping startups with a 5x revenue growth. The CoE shall also conduct masterclasses for government officials on how to work with startups.”

The theme of the session was ‘Shaping a Vibrant Entrepreneurial Ecosystem’. It had two panel discussions, one on ‘Boosting Startup Ecosystem’ and the second on ‘Funding Options for Startups’. Eminent speakers present at the event shared government strategies and policies being undertaken to support entrepreneurs in the region, which enable startups to ensure more purposeful, productive, agile, and flexible ways of conducting business.

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