The central government is also making efforts on priority basis to promote agriculture. The government is promoting startups focused on digital solutions for agriculture, climate change, rural development, education and even healthcare delivery.
The central government is ready to become a business partner to launch the starchup associated with it. India aims to promote the startup ecosystem in India.
All the ministries are preparing themselves in such a way that they will partner in business proposals arising out of any investment where the state government will have a limited participation. Where the states will have limited equity participation including the ministries of agriculture and electronics.
The government had a “good idea and a lot of data” on the potential of startups and how they can boost the economy by managing earlier initiatives like Startup India.
For which the government had estimated an expenditure of Rs 900 crore.
India has overtaken the UK in terms of number of unicorns (startups worth $1 billion) after the US and China. There are 487 and 301 new unicorns added in India in 2021.
According to the latest Economic Survey as of January 14, there are 83 unicorns in India, with a total valuation of $277.77 billion. Another official said that the agriculture sector is being seen in a big way in India, where digital technologies have already shown promising development.
Another official said on the condition of anonymity, “He invited startups and FPOs (Farmer Producer Organizations) to submit their proposals to the agriculture ministry. The Agriculture Ministry is considering proposals to provide equity grants, management cost and other support measures for agri-technology based startups.
Significantly, the agricultural sector of India is very large. The number of small and marginal farmers is high here. But since the Green Revolution of 1970, there has been no major technological improvement in the agricultural sector of the country.
This is the reason why startups focused on services like data-based, customized crop monitoring packages, and accurate inputs for market intelligence are being seen as the next big technological change in the agriculture sector after the Green Revolution.
A spokesperson for Agromalin, an agriculture startup, said, “India's agricultural revolution, or Agriculture 4.0, is being driven by the rapid use of deep-tech solutions across the country.
DeHaat is the country's fastest growing agri-tech start-up that provides complete AI-based solutions. Ninjakart is India's largest fresh product supply chain startup. The government will set up a new fund for the new initiative, but its participation may be limited to an equity ownership of 20 percent. The fund will be managed by a private equity fund manager.
Apart from agriculture, ministries participating in the initiative include electronics and IT and health ministries. Ashish Patel, partner, startup funder Tech-X, said, “Having a limited equity of 20 per cent in any startup means the ventures will get additional cash to scale up.
