Commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal urges startup council to focus on tier-2, 3 cities

Commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal on Tuesday urged the National Startup Advisory Council to focus on tier-2 and tier-3 cities for venture capital funding, capacity building and creating awareness about government schemes that promote startups in those regions.

The minister said this while chairing the fourth meeting of NSAC (National Startup Advisory Council) here.

"He urged them (council members) to focus on tier 2 and tier 3 cities where limited VC (Venture Capital) funding is available," the commerce ministry said in a statement.

He also emphasised on the need for capacity building and creating awareness about various initiatives of the government to promote startups in such cities.

The council, it said, deliberated upon matters related to the startup ecosystem, including protecting ownership of startups with original promoters, incorporating in India, listing in India and developing innovation hubs.

The minister also launched NavIC Grand Challenge which aims at promoting adoption of NavIC as a geo-positioning solution.

NSAC was constituted by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) to advise the government on measures needed to build a strong ecosystem for nurturing innovation and startups in the country.

The meeting was attended by key stakeholders, officials and existing startups in the country. Some of them included Manoj Kohli, Country Head, Softbank India; Abhiraj Bhal, Co-founder, UrbanCompany; and Kunal Bahl, Co-founder and CEO, Snap-deal.