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Software program Expertise Parks of India (STPI), an organisation underneath the Ministry of Electronics and Info Expertise (MeitY), AIC STPINEXT Initiatives (STPINEXT) have signed a tripartite non-financial MoU with SINE-IIT Bombay for fostering entrepreneurship and nurturing tech start-ups.

STPI has been working for creation of start-up ecosystems within the nation by growing 25 Facilities of Entrepreneurship (CoEs) in rising applied sciences, an official press launch mentioned. The signing of the MoU with SINE-IIT Bombay will strengthen the collaboration for leveraging the latter’s experience and information to empower startups incubated at STPI Movement, Pune, study and garner expertise to scale up their ventures, STPI mentioned.

STPI MOTION, Pune is a site particular state-of-the-art facility for startups working in Autonomous, Related, Electrical and Shared (ACES) mobility at Pune. Setup by STPI, the CoE is having state-of-the-art incubation middle together with bodily laboratory in ACES and offers the mandatory help like coaching, mentoring, advertising, entry to funding assets, IPR/patenting help and different requisite help to the startups working on this area.

Talking on the event, Dr. Omkar Rai, DG, STPI mentioned, “The signing of MoU between STPI, STPINEXT and SINE-IIT Bombay will additional strengthen collaborations amongst numerous stakeholders. Startups incubated at MOTION CoE can massively leverage the experience and area information of SINE to rise the worth chain.”

Society for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (SINE)-IIT Bombay, setup in 2004, is without doubt one of the earliest incubators in academia which offers ‘begin to scale’ help for technology-based entrepreneurship and facilitates the conversion of analysis exercise into entrepreneurial ventures. It’s an umbrella group at IIT Bombay for fostering entrepreneurship and nurturing tech startups. It administers a enterprise incubator which offers ‘begin to scale’ help for technology-based entrepreneurship and facilitates the conversion of analysis exercise into entrepreneurial ventures.

Talking on the event, Prof. Subhasis Chaudhuri, Director, IIT Bombay mentioned, “The journey we’re starting in the present day is a notable step in direction of strengthening the startup ecosystem within the nation and enabling startups to leverage the advantages whereas they’re getting incubated and past after they need to remodel their profitable incubation right into a enterprise enterprise.”

STPI/STPINEXT has been always exploring associations with numerous companions from business, academia, monetary establishments, advisory our bodies and consultants to leverage their providers, information and experience for bringing comprehensiveness to the service portfolio of the CoEs, and this MoU will ship an all-embracing service to the incubated start-ups within the nation, a joint assertion mentioned.

The signing of the MoU with SINE, IIT Bombay will strengthen the collaboration for leveraging the latter’s expertise & knowledge to empower startups incubated at STPI Motion, Pune, learn & garner experience to scale up their ventures.

Software Technology Parks of India (STPI), an organisation under MeitY (Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology) has been working for creation of start-up ecosystems in the country and creating 25 Centres of Entrepreneurship (CoEs) in emerging technologies. STPI and AIC STPINEXT INITIATIVES (STPINEXT) have signed tripartite non-financial MoU with SINE- IIT Bombay on 12th October, 2021 for fostering entrepreneurship and nurturing tech start-ups. The signing of the MoU with SINE, IIT Bombay will strengthen the collaboration for leveraging the latter’s expertise & knowledge to empower startups incubated at STPI Motion, Pune, learn & garner experience to scale up their ventures.

STPI MOTION, Pune is a domain specific state-of-the-art facility for startups working in Autonomous, Connected, Electric and Shared (ACES) Mobility at Pune. Setup by STPI, the CoE is having state-of-the-art incubation center along with physical laboratory in ACES and provides the necessary support like training, mentoring, marketing, access to funding resources, IPR/ patenting assistance and other requisite support to the startups working in this domain. 

Speaking on the occasion Dr. Omkar Rai, DG, STPI highlighted, “The signing of MoU between STPI, STPINEXT and SINE, IIT Bombay will further strengthen collaborations among various stakeholders. Start-ups incubated at MOTION CoE can hugely leverage the expertise and domain knowledge of SINE to rise the value chain.”

Society for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (SINE), IIT Bombay, setup in 2004, is one of the earliest incubators in academia which provides ‘start to scale’ support for technology-based entrepreneurship and facilitates the conversion of research activity into entrepreneurial ventures. It is an umbrella organization at IIT Bombay for fostering entrepreneurship and nurturing tech start-ups. It administers a business incubator which provides ‘Start to scale’ support for technology-based entrepreneurship and facilitates the conversion of research activity into entrepreneurial ventures.

Speaking on the occasion Prof. Subhasis Chaudhuri, Director of IIT Bombay said, “The journey we are beginning today is a notable step towards strengthening the startup ecosystem in the country and enabling startups to leverage the benefits while they are getting incubated and beyond when they want to transform their successful incubation into a business venture.”

STPI/STPINEXT has been constantly exploring associations with various partners from industry, academia, financial institutions, advisory bodies and experts to leverage their services, knowledge and expertise for bringing comprehensiveness to the service portfolio of the CoEs, and this MoU will deliver an all-embracing service to the incubated start-ups in the country.

Software Technology Park to resume operations from November onwards

Long-pending dream to see holy city as North India’s IT hub is inching closer to fruition as the Software Technology Park of India (STPI) will initiate steps to operationalise the Software Technology Park Centre here from November.

The Hindustan Steel Work Construction Ltd (HSWCL), a subsidiary of the national building construction company, which falls under the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development, will hand over the building to the STPI on October 31.

Salient features

*  As the state government allotted, 2.72 acres to the New Focal Point on the Mehta Road, the STPI invested Rs22.5 crore to raise a structure, which would also house a centre as well as incubation facility. There is around 3,900 square metre built-up area with three storeys, including a ground floor at the centre. At the entrance, one will find a cafeteria, a training room, a conference room, besides an NOC room (a server will be installed in it). On the first floor, there are three meeting rooms, a pantry and the next floor will have a similar set up.

Project timeline

*  The then Cabinet minister Kapil Sibal had allocated an STP Centre to the holy city in 2012. Next year, an allotment committee under the chairmanship of the then Chief Secretary had approved the allotment of a piece of land to be set up an STP.
*  The then Union minister for Electronics and Information Technology, Ravi Shankar Parsad, had laid the foundation stone of the STP here on November 7, 2016.

Rohit Kumar, a Senior Engineer of the HSWCL, says: interior work of the centre is on its last leg which would be completed before the handing over of the building. The HSWCL constructs STP centres on the behalf of Software Technology Parks of India (STPI), an autonomous society under the Department of Electronics and Information Technology, Union Ministry of Communications and Information Technology.

Accepting that there was some delay due to Covid-19 restrictions and lockdown, he added that the HSWCL, which constructs STP centres on behalf of the STP of India, was entrusted with the project only in 2018.

As the state government allotted, 2.72 acres of land in the New Focal Point on the Mehta road, the STPI invested Rs 22.5 crore to raise a structure which would also house a centre as well as the incubation facility. There is around 3,900 square metre built-up area with three storeys, including a ground floor at the centre. At the entrance, one will find a cafeteria, a training room, a conference room, besides an NOC room (a server will be installed in it). On the first floor, there are three meeting rooms, a pantry and the next floor will have a similar set up.

Sources in the STPI stated that the spaces in the building would be rented out to private IT companies. Provisions for both small and big companies have been made.

IT experts are of the view that the holy city equipped with international connectivity and quality infrastructure was best suited to be developed as an IT hub. It has an international airport with flights to Europe, Middle East, South East Asia. An international bus terminal offering bus services between India and Pakistan. Besides, it is by road connected to the Central Asian countries like Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgystan. Notably, these countries are dependent on foreign countries for most of their IT needs, he said.

While casual gaming is the most popular genre in India, hardcore gaming is currently the fastest growing category in mobile gaming market and the growth is projected to outpace all other sub-segments.

The gaming sector needs a combination of policy, capability building and thought leadership to drive sustainable growth.

India's mobile gaming market is set to more than triple in size to $6-7 billion by 2025, from $1.8 billion in 2021, according to a new report by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), RedSeer and OnePlus.

The report said the growth will be driven by a 500 million strong, digitally native population between the ages of 15 and 35.

India has the world’s largest number of game downloads, estimated to be 825 million in August 2021, or 17.6 percent of total worldwide downloads, according to app intelligence firm Sensor Tower.

The government-imposed lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic further accelerated the growth of these games as mobile app downloads increased by 50 percent and consequently user engagement went up by 20 percent, the report said.

Growth of hardcore gaming

While casual gaming (Angry Birds, Ludo King) is the most popular genre in India, hardcore gaming (Krafton's Battlegrounds Mobile India and Garena's Free Fire) is currently the fastest-growing category in the mobile gaming market and the growth is projected to outpace all other sub-segments, as per the report.

These gamers are the most engaged cohort, often spending 4X more time and money on gaming, compared to the casual gamer, the report said. In a survey conducted over 500 hardcore gamers, around 70 percent of the respondents said they play 2-5 games in parallel and spend about Rs 230 per month on gaming. These gamers also spend time watching e-sports, which is already a $30 million market, it noted.

The industry has attracted nearly $1 billion in investment in the last six months and is expected to generate about 60,000 to 80,000 new jobs by 2025. Around 803 companies have received investment in 2021, as compared to 371 companies in 2020 and 165 companies in 2019.

Nurturing the gaming ecosystem

The sector needs a combination of policy, capability building and thought leadership to drive sustainable growth and India needs to focus on creating a favourable investment environment to nurture the gaming ecosystem, the report said.

It noted several direct initiatives such as STPI's Center of Excellence in Hyderabad to provide resources such as incubation, mentoring, technology support, and funding for Gaming, Animation, VFX, Computer Vision and AI startups and the Indian government's National Centre of Excellence for Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming and Comics as well as indirect initiatives such as Digital India and Digital Literacy policies.

However, there is regulatory uncertainty over some aspects of gaming and the laws defining skill, gambling, data protection and taxing gaming earnings are still under discussion. For instance, the Karnataka government notified an online gambling law on October 5 that outlawed all forms of online gaming where transfer of money is involved.

 To facilitate the growth of emerging technologies in the state, the Karnataka government has inked 3 MoAs (Memorandum of Associations) worth Rs 100.52 crores.

In an event ‘Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav – Innovation and Indigenization in Karnataka – a Gateway for inclusive and equitable growth’ jointly organised by Karnataka and DPIIT aligning with Central government’s initiative “Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav”, MoAs were signed on Friday in the presence of C.N. Ashwath Narayan, the Karnataka Minister for Electronics, IT/BT and Science &Technology.

Speaking on the occasion, Narayan said: “The Center of Excellences which will be set up under these MoAs aims to nurture and facilitate researchers, academicians, startups, and industry to develop technological framework characterizing ethical bindings and enable responsible deployment of AI and IOT across Agriculture, Healthcare, Manufacturing, Smart cities, and education.”

The first MoA, signed between the Department of Electronics, IT, BT and S&T, GoK, and Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) is to set up a Center of Excellence for Efficiency Augmentation in Bengaluru. The Center will support start-ups that would build products and solutions leveraging emerging technologies such as AI, ML, BigData, IoT among others to contribute to ‘Make in India’ and ‘Digital India’, he stated.

Another MoA, Tri-Party Agreement between Karnataka Innovation and Technology Society (KITS) GoK, I-Hub ARTPark, Narayan explained, has the objective to help create and maintain next-generation Artificial Intelligence, Robotics and advanced communication facilities (5G) and help nurture ‘technopreneurship’ activities.

He added the government will provide financial assistance of Rs 60 crore towards setting up the Centre of Excellence and its operations for a period of 5 years.

The third MoA is related to the establishment of the Centre for Internet of Ethical Things (CIET) in Bengaluru at a cost of Rs 22.92 crores for which KITS (Karnataka Innovative & Technological Society of IT/Bt Dept), IIIT-Bangalore, and World Economic Forum (WEF) signed.

The proposed Centre will contribute to policy frameworks pertaining to ethical and moral aspects of technologies and aims to nurture a thriving innovation ecosystem in the state.