SPV for Visakhapatnam Start-up Village

Mr Sanjay Vijayakumar is also the man behind Vizag Start-up Village, on lines of Kochi. The start-up village in Visakhapatnam currently houses 107 start-ups. Under phase I of Entrepreneurship & Innovation plan, the state government will expand the 17,500-sq.ft area of the Incubator Park to 50,000 sq.ft by December next year.

Within 18 months, Mr Vijayakumar said that the aim of government is to put Vizag on global start-up map along with Silicon Valley, Tel Aviv, etc. For this, the Vizag Start-up Village is benchmarking itself against 8 key indicators of the Silicon Valley.

Briefing the action plan to Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu on Monday, MR Vijayakumar said an overhaul of curriculum in schools, colleges and universities will be implemented from July 2015.

This revamping of curriculum will include creating culture of entrepreneurship among students. For colleges and universities- holding boot camps, hackathons and encouraging students to convert their projects into start-ups will be taken up.

“This not only infuses entrepreneurial spirit among students but also leads to direct skill development, eventually creating more jobs and entrepreneurs,” Mr Vijayakumar added.

The Chief Minister suggested that a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) to mobilise resources to create required infrastructure.

“Create a non-exclusive model and work out an action plan to be implemented from July 1,” the Chief Minister explained. In order to market and add value to products developed by local start-ups, Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu said that innovative products or utility programmes of local entrepreneurs can be used by the state government or sold to companies to create value and commercialise them.