Government Seeks Corporate, Unicorn Support for Manufacturing Start-Up Incubators: Report 

Large companies and unicorns like Apple, Tata Group, Maruti, boAT, Moglix, Meesho, and EaseMyTrip have been approached by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) to set up incubators for manufacturing start-ups in the country, as per a report by Moneycontrol. 

The enterprises have reportedly received a memo from the DPIIT that provides a guide on how to set up these incubators. Further, the companies can apply for government financing to do the same. 

While speaking to Moneycontrol, a source said, “It is a voluntary thing. The government has just made a request to the companies as it believes there are not many manufacturing incubators in the country at present. Almost all big companies and unicorns have been approached.” 

As of now, no special monetary corpus has been planned for the initiative, but it might happen in the future, according to the report. The strategies and impact of six major corporations that are involved with start-ups have been presented by the DPIIT. BMW, AstraZeneca, Spotify, Amazon, Nike, and Samsung are some of the companies doing the same. 

Read: 67% of Start-Up Employees Open to Moving to Established Firms: Report

As per the report, the memo says, “"Through technology transfer from incubated startups, corporations can gain competitive advantage in markets and gain new customers.” While highlighting that developing a new innovation is both time-consuming and a resource incentive, it says that working with new start-ups would help reduce the cost. 

The document outlines several funding options corporate incubators can use to pay for costs, according to the report. These options include applying for government funding and incubator support programs, partnering with academic institutions or other institutions through a co-investment model, or allocating corporate social responsibility funds in accordance with the seventh schedule of the Companies Act. 

Highlighting the significance of the incubators, the government said in a memo that incubators are the key pillars of the start-up ecosystem. Further, several initiatives were launched by the government to boost the incubation landscape in India.