Naveen launches Startup Odisha Helpline

Bhubaneswar: In a bid to infuse entrepreneurship among youths, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik today launched the Startup Odisha Helpline while the state's MSME department signed an MoU with Invest India.

"I am sure that partnership between Startup Odisha Initiative and Startup India Hub run by the Invest India will help us in achieving the Mission-1000 Startups by the year 2020 and help our youth in realising their dreams," Patnaik said after launching the helpline.

He said the Invest India, the national investment promotion and facilitation agency, signed an MoU with MSME department to take forward the Odisha Startup and MSME initiatives. The MoU with Invest India will bring global perspective and provide access to the best practices in the field of startups and other MSME sectors, Patnaik said.

"Startup India has the objective of making India a country of job creator. The vision is to make India number one startup national in the world," said Deepak Bagla, CEO and MD Invest India, after he signed the MoU with the state government.

Bagla said Odisha become the first state to sign MoU with Invest India for jointly working for startups.

The MoU will facilitate knowledge exchange, access to funding and networking between Odisha startups and the global startup ecosystem. "Invest India will also extend knowledge support for development of MSME sector in the state with focus on food processing, agro-processing and spices sector," said MSME secretary L N Gupta.

Gupta said the state has already listed 225 startups and 24 incubators since Chief Minister Patnaik unveiled the Odisha Startup Policy.