Govt in final stages of developing dedicated deeptech startup policy: DPIIT Secy

Rajesh Kumar Singh, Secretary, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT).

The Union government is in the final stages of developing a dedicated policy to foster deeptech startups, said Rajesh Kumar Singh, secretary, Ministry of Commerce and Industry on March 18.

This comes at a time when there has been increased attention on the deeptech startup ecosystem, with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman recently announcing the setting up of a Rs 1 lakh crore corpus for supporting the startup ecosystem, along with a new scheme for deeptech innovation in the defence sector.

“The government of India is in the process of creating a separate, dedicated, deeptech startup policy. The policy paper is now in the final stages of inter-ministerial discussions, and we hope to bring it forward soon,” Singh who is a secretary in the Commerce Ministry’s Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) said. He was speaking at the inaugural session of the Startup Mahakumbh event in New Delhi.

Singh stressed the need for startups not only to innovate but also to commercialise and develop intellectual property rights. “Only deeptech and extensive research is an answer to that (creating intellectual property rights),” he said.

After the release of the national deeptech policy, the government will work on releasing a dedicated fund of funds for the sector.

“We will hopefully move towards creating a dedicated fund of funds. We don't want to start picking winners and losers in business, which is why we created this concept of an AIF and fund of funds so that we have professional managers taking those decisions. So hopefully, you will soon see a separate window for deep tech startup,” Singh added.

Overall, regarding the startup ecosystem, Singh said that there are startups in 670, out of 700 plus districts in the country. “Over 50 percent of such startups are from tier two and tier three cities. And almost 45 percent have at least one woman as a director on the board, which shows again, how broad, how inclusive, how widespread this startup ecosystem has become,” he added.