Kerala Government Introduces Startup Projects Under SVEP Scheme

The Kerala Government, under the State Poverty Eradication Mission’s Kudumbashree program, have been allotted 12 new projects. These projects will be a part of the Startup Village Entrepreneurship Program (SVEP) by the Union Ministry for Rural Development.

The program, which has already been implemented in the Parakkode block in the southern district of Pathanamthitta and in Ernakulam’s Vadavukodu block will be launched in all the districts of Kerala. The program will offer financial as well as technical support to over 2,000 startups operating in the State and for this purpose around $ 1.008 million (Rs. 6.5 crores) has been allocated for each block. These startup ventures will receive technical support from trained personnel, as well as loan support. If this program is successfully implemented, Kerala will become the only state in the country to have introduced SVEP project in all its districts, with the addition of these 12 new projects.

Kudumbashree will implement the project with support from the Kudumbashree National Resource Organisation. According to officials, the aim of the program is the comprehensive development of entrepreneurship ventures launched after studying their possibilities at the local level. A resource hub will also be set up as part of the project for new and struggling startups and performance improvement programs will be conducted to assist existing companies. The New Indian Express reported around 60% of the total corpus will be provided by the Union Government.

Kerala’s IT Secretary M. Sivasankar also proposed a government partnered funding system for startups during the ‘Seeding Kerala 2’ meet last year. The goal of this initiative was to help entrepreneurs network with investors and gain further mentoring on funding and marketing of their products.

Many states have been extremely proactive at fostering innovation and entrepreneurship. Karnataka government recently launched the Elevate Program to reach out to 100 startups from small cities and towns and help them grow. Recently, the Commerce and Industry Ministry and Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion also launched a new Rs. 2000 crores credit guarantee scheme for startups all over India.