Giving a stiff competition to Israel which is considered as a star-up nation worldwide, India has recently made a tremendous progress in terms of number of start-up and became a preferred destination for foreign investments in the start-up ecosystem with over 56,000 start-ups along with huge market huge market. As India is an agriculture dependent country with majority of the population depending on agriculture and related activities for the survival, agri-tech start-ups occupy a significant position in the

entire start-up ecosystem in boosting the country’s economy.          

India today is the home of over 450 agri-tech start-ups with agri start-up boom in the states of Karnataka, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Odisha. However, considering immense scale of agriculture in the country, there is still a long way to go for the start-ups in the sector. Incubators play vital role in nurturing creativity in the Indian start-ups, particularly the agri-techs which require sophisticated equipment and controlled environment.   

Government Empowering Start-up Ecosystem through Incubators

The Government of India under the Atal Innovation Mission had set up 13 Atal Incubation Centres in both public and private sectors, and provided a grant-in-aid of 10 Cr to the already established Incubation Centres in the country. The Bangalore Bio innovation Centre, an initiative of Government of Karnataka with funding from Department of Biotechnology, Government of India is first-of-its-kind incubation centres and the largest bio-incubation centre in the country. The Bangalore Bio innovation Centre with Common Instrumentation Facility spreading in the 10-Acre campus provides funding opportunities, mentoring, branding and networking support apart from the required equipment and laboratories for start-ups. The Government of Andhra Pradesh has launched one of the first incubation facilities in Visakhapatnam to promote innovation culture and start-ups. The centre operates on `Bootup-Startup-Scaleup’ model with focus on the first generation of technocrat entrepreneurs. The Government of Telangana has also launched a Technology incubation centre named T-hub with an aim to promote entrepreneurship in the State of Telangana. T-hub supports and encourages innovations in the Hyderabad start-up ecosystem by hosting workshops, regular talks, networking events and mentoring sessions on the latest technology trends. Leveraging the Incubator facilities provided by the government, Indian start-ups including the agri-techs are set to attain new heights to give a major boost to the agri-dependent Indian economy.