Mumbai: The state govt has rolled out a startup policy that seeks to nurture 1.3 lakh entrepreneurs and recognise up to 50,000 startups in the next five years. A dedicated Innovation City spread across 300 acres will be built under Startup, Entrepreneurship and Innovation Policy 2025, and each department will have to provide 0.5% of its budget outlay for promotion of entrepreneurship and innovation.“The state-of-the-art Innovation City will bring together startups, corporates, investors, academia and govt under one roof. It will act as a hub for collaborative cutting-edge research and innovation with participation of industry, experts, researchers and startups,” said an official. The policy, rolled out as part of govt’s plan to establish Maharashtra as a leading startup destination, states that to facilitate entrepreneurship and innovation at the grassroots level, the state will implement ‘CM Maha fund’ and a corpus of Rs 500 crore over five years will be allocated for this. Officials said govt will create 25,000 successful entrepreneurs/innovators, and selected candidates will be provided loans of Rs 5 lakh-10 lakh in collaboration with financial institutes. “Govt will establish and operationalise a venture fund to support deep tech startups and women-led startups that are innovative, scalable and provide socially relevant solutions. This sector-agnostic fund aims to empower startups that create high-impact innovations and sustainable employment opportunities,” according to the policy. It said to help with startups’ growth, a mechanism will be created in partnership with financial institutions to assist with loans “to meet their cash flow requirement against confirmed work orders from reliable clients such as govt bodies or large/renowned corporations”. “This initiative will address cash flow challenges, helping startups scale their operations and strengthen their credibility in the market. Govt aims to support incubation centres across the state with funding assistance of up to Rs 5 crore per centre. This initiative is designed to foster a robust regional entrepreneurial ecosystem, accelerating startup growth. A dedicated capacity-building programme will also be launched to enhance the capabilities of these incubation centres,” it said.
