Chief Minister K Palaniswami Saturday unveiled a start-up policy that aims to nurture 5,000 technology startups in Tamil Nadu and further strengthen infrastructure in identified thrust areas including 'Software as a Service'.
The mission aims at about 1,00,000 high skilled job creation, direct and indirect, in the startup ecosystem and will give priority to women-led startups and provide special care to differently-abled and transgenders.
As per the policy, State will set up Tamil Nadu Startup Fund of Rs 250 crore to be managed by a professional financial agency such as SIDBI and startups will get priority in allotment of plots in government run industrial estates.
Also, a Tamil Nadu Startup Seed Grant Fund of Rs 50 crore with an allotment of Rs 5 crore in the first year is set to be created in partnership with financial institutions and universities for supporting early stage financing requirements of startups in the form of grants.
The TNSSGF would also provide funding for Idea-to-PoC (Proof of Concept) stages which are pre-startup activities and also provide revolving fund up to a maximum of Rs 50 lakh to academic, institutional and private technology business.
Software as a Service, Information Technology, Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, agriculture, renewable energy, climate change, fintech, textile, are among the identified thrust areas where support infrastructure will be established and existing mechanisms will be strengthened.
To promote startups, the existing labour laws and technical norms will be simplified and self-certification is to be accepted "where there are no technical regulations need to be complied such as EPFO, ESIC, minimum wages, bonus, gratuity."
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