Lucknow to get largest incubation centre

LUCKNOW: Lucknow is set to get India’s largest incubation centre. The project has been planned in an area of 2.5 lakh square feet in land opposite the Chaudhary Charan Singh Airport. Chief minister Yogi Adityanath has written to the Union ministry of IT and Electronics, asking for assistance from the Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) to implement the project.
Additional chief secretary, IT and electronics, Alok Kumar said that the Uttar Pradesh Electronics Corporation, the startup nodal agency, will be responsible for building and operating this centre with help from STPI.
“STPI has made a presentation to the infrastructure and industrial development commissioner, sharing their plan and the scale of the project,” he said.
Kumar said the facility will be developed on the plug-and-play model to offer an all-inclusive ecosystem to startups and innovators.
Kumar said the facility will be developed on the plug-and-play model to offer an all-inclusive ecosystem to startups and innovators. “This centre will work on a hub and spoke model in which the largest incubator will act as a hub for all other government recognised incubators and e-cells in the state,” he said.
UP government is working with STPI to develop IT Parks in various tier-II and III cities like Meerut, Prayagraj, Gorakhpur, Agra, Lucknow, Kanpur, Bundelkhand and Bareilly. An official said that the Prayagraj IT Park is now operational while the Meerut IT Park is expected to be operational by November this year. The construction of IT Parks in Agra and Gorakhpur is expected to be completed by December this year. These parks will also provide incubation facilities.
The government has also received a proposal from IIT Kanpur to establish a Centre of Excellence on Artificial Intelligence in Noida.
Kumar said the government has undertaken a realignment of its startup policy in accordance with the startup ranking framework. This resulted in the new UP Startup Policy 2020 for promoting entrepreneurship and innovation. The policy has also set a goal of establishing 100 incubators in the state by 2025, with at least one in each district. He added that the policy addresses regional imbalances as well to give a thrust to uplift of weaker sections of the society and bring them into the mainstream of business by offering additional incentives. “Additional incentives to the tune of 50% have been offered to startups based out of Purvanchal and Bundelkhand and to those startup whose founders or co-founders are women, divyangjan or from the transgender community,” he said.