Alkesh Kumar Sharma, Secretary, ministry of electronics and IT, on Tuesday said that the government is looking to promote more than 10,000 startups in the next 5 to 6 years, under the GENESIS programme.
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While responding to a question about possible funding winter that could lead to shortage of fund or startups, Sharma said that, "Funding is not an issue. We are moving to level next where Genesis is coming. We are going to launch. We are going to promote 10,000 startups in the next 5 to 6 years."
He also added that he has not seen any startup running for funds and instead they are looking for growth opportunities through various means.
Sharma participated in a briefing session with various startup representatives which includes KidEx, Teralumens, iMumz, Recur Club, BlueSemi and many others, to understand their issues.
As per reports, in July, government launched the Digital India GENESIS (Gen-Next Support for Innovative Startups) programme, which has an outlay of INR 750 crore.
At present, India has, reportedly, more than 73,000 startups and out of them, more than 100 are unicorns or those with $1billion valuation.
"We are helping startups in product development from where they can pick up business," Kumar said.
Meity is already running a programme, Startup accelerator of MeitY for product innovation, development and growth (SAMRIDH), under which it plans to select 300 startups and provide each of them funding support of up to INR 40 lakh.