“We want to focus on deeptech and IPR creation, and have been dedicated to reforming the patent process in terms of providing human resources and crunched the patent examination time. From 5000 odd patents granted in 2014-15, this year we will most likely be granting 1 lakh plus patents. It’s an exponential jump. These are the areas we would like to see the start-up ecosystem grow and create value for themselves and for the country,” said Rajesh Kumar Singh, secretary, Department for Promotion Of Industry And Internal Trade (DPIIT), Ministry Of Commerce And Industry, Government Of India in a fireside chat with Prateek Maheshwari, co-chair, India Edtech Consortium and Co-founder, Physics Wallah, at the India Digital Summit (IDS) 2024, in Mumbai today.
Speaking about the government’s plan to boost investments as the sector recovers from funding winter, Singh said that the government was investing hugely in digital and physical infrastructure. He spoke of two sets of funding windows: the Seed Fund Scheme for early stage start-ups, and the Fund Scheme which is channelized through the Small Industry Development Bank of India (SIDBI) that leverages about Rs. 10,000 crores of government funding to various alternative investment funds (AIFs), to support startups that are already established. Additionally, the government will also look at creating a separate window for deeptech start-ups in the near future, he added.
Shri Singh said that the government would continue to invest in public infrastructure and making it bigger and global, and was talking to various countries in this regard, particularly in the Global South.
IDS 2024 is being organised by IAMAI in partnership with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB), the Union Ministry of Tourism, UIDAI, Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre (I4C), Government eMarketplace, In-Space and Skill India Digital. The Summit is Co-powered by Peak XV and WhistleFEED, and Brought to You by META.
Other IDS 2024 partners include Aaj Tak, Affle, Agrahyah Technologies, Air India Express, AiSensy, Albatross Media, Asianet News, Atmegame, Australia Trade & Investment Commission, Bharat BillPay, BillDesk, Builder.ai, Careers360, Chalo, DigiBoxx, Ethinos, Fi Money, HERE India, indixital, Infinity Learn, Infobip, Interactive Avenues, ixigo, Jagran New Media, JOJO, Lionsgate, Liqvd Asia, MakeMyTrip, MapmyIndia, Markscan, Neokred, PhonePe, Physics Wallah, Pivotroots, Razorpay, Shiprocket, Sinch, Times Internet, Transport Corporation of India, True Balance, ValueFirst, and Zupee.