“We are Working towards Creating 5000 Startups in Odisha by 2025” – Dr Omkar Rai, Executive Chairman, Startup Odisha

Dr. Rai: The vision of Startup Odisha is to build a culture of innovation in Odisha and support as well as create an environment where young boys and girls and students could ideate. Thereafter, we will endeavour to tap and convert this energy into startups, host and nurture them in our incubators by creating an ecosystem.

We will also provide them access to mentor support, infrastructure, funding and market linkage. This is how we can achieve the desired target, which is the vision set by the Hon’ble Chief Minister of Odisha, of creating 5000 startups by 2025.

Dr. Rai: We are trying to inculcate the culture of innovation, tap energy of young boys and girls and sensitize them so that they could start ideating. A lot of activities are happening on the ground in this regard.

Apart from that, we are also trying to tap the existing incubators in Odisha. We are trying to tap the academia; as in the young students enrolled there, and also the teachers. We are trying to tap their energy & talent as mentors.

We are also trying to network with the entire infrastructure so that we can connect those facilities with Odisha Startup Hub. We’ll provide all kind of support to the startups enrolled here.

We are trying to implement the Startup Odisha policy in the most efficient manner so as to make Odisha the number one (No1) state in terms of entrepreneurial efficiency and investment potential.

Dr Rai:  We provide monthly stipend of Rs 20,000 to selected startups for a year. And once they reach a stage where they could convert their ideas into prototype and product, we give them a grant of Rs 16 lakh. Thereafter, we enable the programme to have market access and market connect, access to government orders, exposing and providing them opportunities to funding agencies, AC/BC funders and other market players.

The idea is to support the startups and entrepreneurs in their entire life-cycle, from ideation to market. For supporting these kinds of entrepreneurial journey, we have put up everything that is required in place.

Dr Rai: We don’t have sectoral focus, but we have priorities. We wish the younger generation start creating products to help in sectors like medtech, healthtech, edtech, cyber security, agritech et al, so that they could solve the problems faced by the state and the nation at large.

And, by doing so, they can make products that can be accessed by users all over the world, so that, they could create wealth and jobs needed for the countrymen, particularly in Odisha.

Dr Rai:  O-Hub offers world-class infrastructure. Anything required to nurture startups is available here. As the name goes, it’s a hub. And therefore, it is going to connect all the incubators across Odisha so that we can serve the startups where ever they are.

In a nut shell, O-Hub is actually an Opportunity Hub.

It has to become a vibrant place where we could promote very energetic and live real time communication and collaborate with stakeholders. That is how we could come up with all those measures and initiatives required to be put in place to make Odisha the number one destination in terms of efficiency, conduciveness and punctuality.

Therefore, O-Hub is going to be the place where lots of things will be happening in terms of ideation, enabling us to dynamically improve our services, process and delivery.

Dr Rai: Young boys and girls of the State and people working outside will be attracted to this system. Simultaneously, we will also try to tap, connect and capitalize on a large number of Odias, NRIs who are doing excellent outside the country.

In Silicon Valley, many R&D companies are manned by people from Odisha, and, therefore, it will be our endeavour to connect to them, tap their talent as well as their love and affection for Odisha. They can act as mentors to the startups which are coming up on the soil of Odisha. They could also invest and become brand ambassadors for those startups.

They can take up the responsibility of one sector of startup activity, or the other, so as to become ambassadors for one particular district or a particular incubator. We will create such collaboration and engagement so that they will be excited and willing to give it back to Odisha.

Dr Rai: The government is an enabler. Unless we are able to reach out to people, academia, business community, successful entrepreneurs and seek their support, we will not be successful. Therefore, Odisha Startup Hub & Startup Odisha programme will capitalize and depend on the entire society of Odisha, within and outside the state.

We will network with people, talk to them, we will reach out to them, seek their support and involve their collaboration and support in our programme. Unless they support us, we will not be successful.

Whether they are researchers, teachers, students, businessmen, innovators at the grassroots or farmers, we will create a mechanism to communicate, connect and collaborate with all of them.

Dr. Rai: Wherever there is a possibility for improvement, innovation and improvisation, we will do. We will continuously talk to people, interact and engage with them and dynamically address their problem. We want to be efficient in all possible manners. We want to capitalise on the entire ecosystem and energy available in the state. That is how we want to proceed in the future. We are coming up with the new policy, ‘Startup Odisha Policy 2022’. This policy will be a significant improvement over the previous one. We have already interacted with the stakeholders, we will again make it public and try to bring it as soon as possible.

(Dr. Omkar Rai, Executive Chairman, Startup Odisha needs no introduction.