Govt to soon announce startup and innovation policy

Kochi: Kerala Government would soon announce a Startup and Innovation policy, Chief Minister Ooommen Chandy Friday said.

Addressing young entrepreneurs at the YES summit, Chandy said the report by a three member panel headed by Additional Chief Secretary and KSIDC Managing Director Aruna Sundararajan has been accepted by the government and based on it the government would soon announce a Start-up and Innovation policy.

He also announced a slew of innovative measures to encourage young entrepreneurs in the state.

The summit was organised at angamali, about 80 kms from here by the state government in association with the Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation.

"The Student Entrepreneurs policy announced by the state government in 2012 has started yielding results much earlier than expected. In 2012, we planned to add 1,000 more enterprises in the coming 10 years. Now, 2 years later, we have got proposals for setting up 726 odd enterprises', he said.

Of these, 276 proposals are from young entrepreneurs. This was a testimony for the runaway success of Students Entrepreneurship policy, Chandy said.

For the first time in the country, the government has decided to set up a "Live, Work and Play" campus spread over a 5 lakh sq ft area. "We have accepted the blue print of the project and we will announce the project soon", he said.

Industries and IT minister P K Kunjalikutty said Kerala has been witnessing an exponential growth in the number of small and medium industries and the key driver behind this phenomenon are young entrepreneurs.

Finance minister K M Mani in his key note address said if there is a will, everybody in Kerala can be an entrepreneur. KFC will give interest free loans up to Rs 40 lakh to anybody who clears the Industrial training course.

Aruna Sundararajan said YES marked a paradigm shift in the entrepreneurship landscape of the state.