3 months ago
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The Centre has fixed an authoritative explanation for what constitutes a ‘deep tech’ startup successful India. A buzzword until now, the ‘deep tech’ startup, according to a gazette notification by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) made nationalist connected Thursday, is 1 that is chiefly acrophobic with producing a solution based connected caller knowledge/ advancements successful a technological oregon engineering discipline.
It indispensable walk astir of its wealth connected probe and improvement (R&D) activities; owns oregon is successful the process of creating important caller intelligence spot (IP) and taking steps to commercialise the same; faces extended improvement timelines, agelong gestation periods, precocious superior and infrastructure requirements, and carries ample method oregon technological uncertainty.
A ‘startup,’ — the DPIIT says — is simply a institution that is little than 10 years aged oregon has a turnover little than ₹200 crore. According to the gazette notification, a heavy tech institution tin see itself a ‘startup’ for arsenic agelong arsenic 20 years and a turnover of upto ₹300 crore — indicating the longer runway specified companies person and the clip it takes to travel to fruition.
Applying for certification
To beryllium counted arsenic a heavy tech startup, companies indispensable use to the DPIIT for a certificate. The DPIIT is the last authorization that determines whether a institution qualifies arsenic a startup oregon a heavy tech startup. It volition determine this based connected “guidance” from an Inter-Ministerial Board of Certification, which includes a Joint Secretary, DPIIT (Convener); a typical from the Department of Science and Technology (DST); a typical from the Department of Biotechnology, according to the notification.
The notification besides prohibits a defined startup from investing successful activities that are not straight connected to its halfway mandate of moving and creating caller cognition — for lawsuit investing successful existent property oregon “speculative assets,” oregon shares and securities — unless they are halfway to the company’s cognition production.
These definitions are important fixed the Centre’s thrust connected technology-driven startups. The Anusandhan National Research Foundation (ANRF) is the custodian of the ₹1 lakh crore Research and Development Innovation (RDI) Fund that is expected to put successful emerging exertion and money probe implicit 7 years. A portion of these investments, which volition beryllium done secondary money managers specified arsenic fiscal institutions, volition spell to heavy tech startups. Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Science and Technology Jitendra Singh said this week that companies with RDI funds could get financing astatine concessional rates of astir 2-4% with tenures upto 15 years.
In 2024, the DPIIT recognised astir 10,000 startups successful India with Ajay Sood, India’s Principal Scientific Advisor (PSA), stating that lone astir 10% of them were ‘deep tech’ startups and that this was “too low” for India. The PSA bureau prepared a heavy tech argumentation successful July 2023, though this has yet to beryllium approved by the Union Cabinet.
