Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Saturday inaugurated ‘O-Hub’, a flagship initiative of his Government, to support startup formation and subsequent scale-up.
The incubation hub is located in the Special Economic Zone, Patia. Bhubaneswar, and offers a 1,50,000-square feet area with state-of-the-art facility, plug-n-play infrastructure to support startup activities. The initiative would provide a platform for innovators and entrepreneurs to develop products or services, establish formal businesses and interact with stakeholders of the ecosystem.
Patnaik said the O-Hub would be the first point to identify the best in the industry for co-creation and development of business with their new ideas and it would be a conglomerate for business houses and innovation. The innovators, mentors, corporate partners, ecosystem enablers and facilitators would work under one roof.
The O-Hub would facilitate 200 startups every year in diverse sectors like healthcare, renewable energy, ICT, artificial intelligence, machine learning, augmented reality/virtual reality, internet of things, handlooms and handicrafts, agri-tech and many more.
Happy to note that over 1,200 startups have been created so far under the Odisha Startup Policy 2016 that have generated 10,000 employments, the CM expressed confidence that the State would achieve the goal of 5,000 startups by 2025.
“We are on path of resurgent Odisha scripting new stories of success in all fields,” Patnaik said.
MSME Minister Dibya Shankar Mishra applauded how the Startup Odisha has been pivotal in nurturing grassroots innovations.
The incubation hub aims to mobilise startup investments to the tune of Rs 100 crore per year through venture capitalists, angel networks, HNIs, State and Central Government departments or agencies.
The CM also released a coffee table book on Startup Odisha. He said the new Startup Policy 2021 would include Entrepreneurship in school curriculum.
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