Gandhinagar: Under the leadership of Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, an important Startup Dialogue was organized in Gandhinagar to make Gujarat a global center for AI and emerging technologies by empowering young startups with scalable and effective solutions.
In this Startup Dialogue, the Chief Minister expressed great interest in learning about 24 high-potential startups from the states of the country by directly interacting with them and learning about their experiences and innovations.
During this interaction with the startups, the Chief Minister said that due to the strong foundation laid by Prime Minister Narendra Modi as the Chief Minister of Gujarat for the development of the state, today Gujarat is at the forefront in the country in rapidly adopting new technologies with financial discipline. Not only this, emerging sectors such as AI, semiconductors and green growth have moved towards achieving the goals of sustainable development.
5 startups in the agriculture sector on various uses of AI technology, 3 in the health sector as well as 6 AI-based work on various aspects of education and 10 startups from the government and industry sectors presented their work and products to the Chief Minister and all those present during this dialogue.
On this occasion, the Chief Minister clearly expressed his view that it is the government’s intention to give priority to talented startups to work with the state government. So that innovation and new entrepreneurs are encouraged. He also added that the main objective of the government is to further increase the speed of government work through the use of AI, bring more transparency in work and quickly deliver the benefits of government schemes to the last man with the help of technology.
The state government is ready to support every startup that increases the well-being of citizens and the efficiency of the government, but to realize this vision, it is very important that everyone’s efforts and direction are united. He clearly expressed his view that ‘quality’ will be the first priority of the state government in technology-based development.
During this AI dialogue organized by the Science and Technology Department of the state government at the Chief Minister’s residence, an MoU was signed with the Science and Technology Department and Sarvam AI and MIKO startups. In addition, the payment modalities of the AI Center of Excellence, Gujarat were also inaugurated.
Under this, a modern Sovereign AI Park will be set up in Gujarat by Sarvam AI. In this AI Park, all the facilities required for AI, such as high-end computing infrastructure, centers for research and innovation, skill development for youth, AI-based solutions for the government, technology for improving citizen services, will be developed in a single campus.
This MoU between the state government and Sarvam AI will result in a large number of employment opportunities being created in the next 5 years and a strong ecosystem of AI and new technologies will be created. In addition, startups and innovation will be encouraged and government services will become smarter and faster.
To make this project successful, the state government will expedite the necessary permissions and clearances and will help in completing the project on time by providing assistance and support as per the state policies and coordinating with the relevant departments.
The Gujarat Government has announced a clear and transparent financial support model for startups to develop and rapidly implement innovative AI solutions under the AI Innovation Challenge. This initiative will provide strong financial support to startups at all stages, from Proof of Concept (PoC) development to production rollout, so that high-impact AI-based solutions can be implemented quickly in the state.
Under this initiative, startups will be provided direct financial support according to the use case for the PoC phase. For moderate use cases, funding of up to Rs. 7.5 lakh and for complex use cases, funding of up to Rs. 10 lakh will be provided step-by-step. Under this scheme, 25% of the amount will be given immediately after the startup is selected, while the remaining 75% will be given after the successful PoC is completed.
After the PoC is successful, the selected projects will get further support for full-scale deployment. For moderate projects, funding of up to Rs. Up to Rs. 50 lakh and up to Rs. 1 crore for complex projects will be provided for full-scale deployment, implementation, customization, feature enhancement and handholding support. In addition, startups will get support for 4 years, in which they will also get the benefit of the strong infrastructure of Gujarat State Data Center and AI CoE.
This financial support model will give startups an opportunity to work directly with the Gujarat government. The state will also get the benefits of faster implementation of high-impact AI solutions, greater efficiency and transparency in government services, a strong startup ecosystem and establishing Gujarat as an AI innovation hub. This initiative will give new heights to the digital transformation and citizen-centric governance of the state.
Encouraging young startups, the Chief Minister said that this dialogue will achieve the objective of bringing such startups from across the country on one platform to understand the state’s development priorities and good governance requirements, as well as to support startups with relevant new technologies.
Not only this, the evaluation of emerging opportunities in AI, drones, health, agriculture, cyber security, sustainability and enterprise technology will improve efficiency, transparency in state government departments.
And this dialogue will be useful in making citizen services more comprehensive.
