COIMBATORE: Plans are under way to establish 15 to 20 world-class startup accelerator centres across the country, and Coimbatore could get one or two such centres with industry support, said Ashish Pandey, innovation lead of Atal Innovation Mission (AIM), on Monday.Speaking at the 6th Start-up Onboarding and Success Meet held at Coddissia Trade Fair Complex in Coimbatore city, Pandey said AIM had established more than 10,000 Atal Tinkering Labs and 100 incubation centres, supported more than 500 startups and generated more than 40,000 jobs. “AIM is completing 10 years, and AIM 2.0 will introduce 12 new programmes focusing on scaling up and industrial integration,” he said.Stressing the need to increase private sector participation in research and development, Pandey said India’s private companies share in innovation and R&D stands at around 37%, which is lower compared to several developed nations. “The Atal Acceleration Centre for Scale-up of Startups (ACCESS) programme aims at enhancing private sector involvement in innovation,” he said. AIM’s Deep Tech Reactor Programme would support technologies from seed stage to deployment through incubation, acceleration and policy enablement, he added.Pandey said CDIIC (CODISSIA Defence Innovation and Atal Incubation Centre) is India’s only defence innovation hub where “industry capabilities meet national security needs” and where startups receive both early-stage and late-stage support.CDIIC houses 33 startups, of which 18 have won iDEX (Innovations for Defence Excellence) recognition, CDIIC director V Sundaram said. A startup is given a three-year incubation period, during which it receives all necessary support from the hub. Once the startup reaches maturity and establishes its market presence, it is required to graduate from the hub. Accordingly, five startups have exited CDIIC after completing their incubation period, Sundaram added. Ten startups were on board at the event, and the dedicated infrastructure for the hub has been completed, said Codissia president Karthikeyan.
