JOIN USBroadening its engagement with the startup ecosystem in the country, IT and BPO industry body National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom) on Monday revealed its intention to associate with countries which are ready to help on these lines.
Nasscom President R Chandrashekhar said that these country-specific engagements will accelerate Nasscom’s endeavour to give a new direction to startups, thereby, giving a fillip to the $118-billion Indian IT industry. “India is emerging as the hotbed for technology startups and we know that countries like the US, Japan, Singapore and Israel are ready to partner with our startups. They are ready to incubate these startups with technology and help them develop new products and services,” Chandrashekhar said.
The initiatives will give new vigour to the startup culture slowly taking pace in different parts of the country like the Startup Village in Kochi, he said. “If we get technology from overseas countries and universities, we can use it in a productive way. For this, we have to have close linkages with the establishment and continue our engagement for long duration. Nasscom will adorn the role of a catalyst so that this synergy can be achieved,” he said.
Countries like Israel, Japan and United States are looking for Indian startups for technology transfer and incubating them for long-term relationships.
Startup initiative
Nasscom on Monday also announced the commencement of the third phase of its 10,000 startups initiative by opening up applications from technology startups across the country. After receiving over 7,000 applications in the earlier rounds, Nasscom launched the third phase of its startup initiative.
The ‘10,000 startup initiative’ was launched in April 2013 with partners like Google, Microsoft and Verisign. Under this program, Nasscom helps selected startups get into several accelerator programmes, receive venture capital or angel funding, put together business plans, and provides other support.