Bhubaneswar, June 9 (KNN) The Odisha Government has recently approved 5 proposals, including one for registering 3 new institutions as nodal centers for Start-ups.

Chairing a meeting of the Start-up Council, Chief Secretary Aditya Padhi also approved the proposals for providing financial assistance to technology business incubators in National Institute of Technology (NIT), Rourkela and KIIT, Bhubaneswar.

The three institutes which got the approval to function as nodal centers for Start-up are Institute of Hotel Management, Bhubaneswar, Sri Sri University, Cuttack and National Institute of Science and Technology (NIST), Berhampur.

Further, the council has also decided to extend need-based assistance to Ordunio Labs for carrying forward its innovation of embedded SIM.

Besides this, the innovative ideas of Coastkings Pvt Ltd for sea food processing and packaging was also accorded approval for need-based assistance.

The Chief Secretary advised the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) department to promote employment intensive Start-ups and extend necessary hand holding supports to the promoters till their ventures became viable.

On sharing the journey so far of the startups in the state, MSME Additional Chief Secretary LN Gupta said that the state has been recognizing the startups with an average rate of 20 per months, which is more that the national average.

He said, “Around 233 Start-ups across 39 sectors have been registered within one year. These units are presently providing employment to around 2000 persons”.

Addressing the startup Council meeting, he added around 30 units in Odisha have been provided various benefits like monthly allowance, product development assistance, need-based assistance, reimbursement of expenses and one-time matching capital grant.

At present 7 recognized Start-up incubators are operating in the State, he added.

Also, he directed the departments to intensify the Start-up Odisha Yatra launched by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik for motivating more number of youths to venture into new areas.

Development Commissioner R Balakrishnan advised the department to organize Start-up Conclave in line with Make in Odisha conclave to provide better exposure to promising entrepreneurs of the State.