Centre lauds Kerala govt's proactive role in promoting startup ecosystem

Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala's proactive approach towards the promotion and sustained growth of the startup ecosystem in the state through various measures has been lauded by the central government.

In a draft policy on deep tech startups in the country, it said that measures such as leveraging public procurement for startups have been proactively implemented by the state.

The National Deep Tech Startup Policy (NDTSP) issued by the Office of the Principal Scientific Advisor to the Government of India has recognised the efforts of Kerala in the sector.

The NDTSP serves as a comprehensive framework to address the challenges faced by deep tech startups and provide definitive policy interventions to enhance the ecosystem.

According to it, while the Indian government has been making efforts to enhance public procurement from startups, the initiative has been proactively implemented by Kerala.

"The Government of India has been making efforts to enhance public procurement from startups. The policy builds on existing initiatives like relaxation of prior experience and turnover, to promote procurement and adoption of products from Indian deep tech startups.

"The policy aims to use public procurement as a signalling mechanism to showcase the functionality of the deep tech products to the market. Several state governments have been at the forefront of leveraging public procurement as a market for startups. Kerala is one such proactive state..," the draft policy issued last week said.

It also noted that the Kerala government has successfully inducted and implemented the startup direct procurement for government departments and organisations.

According to the draft policy, such moves are significant for promoting startups as they may not be able to meet large contracts.

Therefore, subcontracting can be used by large firms for subcomponents of projects to organically include startups in the value chain, it noted.

What Kerala has been doing has become rated as "one of the best practices in the States Startup Ranking by DPIIT under Public Procurement", it stated.

Giving details of the measures taken by the Kerala government, the NDTSP noted that multiple government orders (GO) were issued by the state for establishing the scheme and the same has been successfully implemented.

In addition to that, the other relaxations given to startups by the state are with regard to participation in public tenders, tender fees, earnest money deposit, prior experience and turnover, the draft policy noted.

"Government of Kerala has sanctioned permission to departments to purchase products from startups registered with Kerala Startup Mission directly up to Rs 20 lakh exclusive of GST without any tendering process subject to approval by the technical committee...

"Government of Kerala has sanctioned permission for departments, boards, PSUs, corporations etc to procure IT products up to a value of Rs 100 lakh through a limited tender process ie limited to startups registered under Kerala Startup Mission," it said.

However, the Kerala government's initiatives to boost the startup economy are not limited to leveraging public procurement alone.

Recently, it launched LEAP Coworks, a rebranded version of the Kerala Startup Mission (KSUM) to add a thrust to the innovation ecosystem in the state.

LEAP, which is short for 'Launch, Empower Accelerate, Prosper', would help empower startups and foster their culture of innovation, the government had said.

The statewide rebranding was intended to provide comprehensive support and resources to startups and entrepreneurs in Kerala, it had said.

The LEAP Coworks space will offer state-of-the-art infrastructure, well-designed workspaces and meeting rooms, besides high-speed internet connectivity and other essential amenities required for a productive work environment, it had also said.