Thiruvananthapuram: The Union Tribal Affairs Ministry has onboarded Kerala as one of the states to establish a national pathway to identify, incubate, mentor and finance Scheduled Tribes-led startups and enterprises through a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Kerala Startup Mission (KSUM).
KSUM, the nodal agency of the Kerala Government for entrepreneurship development and incubation activities in the state, is among 10 agencies from different states with which the Ministry signed the MoU in the presence of Jual Oram, Union Minister of Tribal Affairs, and Minister of State for Tribal Affairs Durgadas Uikey in New Delhi.
Anant Prakash Pandey, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Tribal Affairs, and Ashok Kurian Panjikaran, Head, Business Development, KSUM, signed and exchanged the MoU on the occasion.
The partnership will provide structured capacity building, mentorship, market linkages and investment-readiness support to Scheduled Tribes-led startups and enterprises.
Besides KSUM, the other agencies with which the Ministry signed the MoUs are IIM Calcutta Innovation Park, T-Hub Foundation, Startup Tamil Nadu, Startup Odisha, IIM Udaipur Incubation Centre, PRIME Meghalaya, KIIT Technology Business Incubator, Foundation for Innovation and Entrepreneurship Development (FIED), IIM Kashipur, and Entrepreneur School of Business, Nagaland.
The selected institutions will work with Ministry to create an enabling ecosystem for innovation-driven entrepreneurship among ST communities across the country.
The partnerships are expected to reach approximately 1,000 ST entrepreneurs, with a minimum of 100 entrepreneurs to be funded and incubated under the Venture Capital Funds for ST (VCF-ST).
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Funding support for Scheduled Tribes-led startups
Under the VCF-ST scheme, companies having 51 per cent shareholding by ST entrepreneurs for the past six months, along with management control, can avail financial assistance of up to Rs 50 lakh.
For funding above Rs 50 lakh, companies having 51 per cent shareholding by ST entrepreneurs for the past 12 months, along with management control, can apply.
The scheme also provides incubation funding of a maximum of Rs 10 lakh per year for a period of three years, aggregating to Rs 30 lakh, subject to satisfactory progress.
Applications are currently open for the VCF-ST scheme at https://www.vcfst.in/.
The funding and incubation framework is intended to strengthen opportunities for Scheduled Tribes-led startups by improving access to finance, mentorship and other elements required to develop and scale enterprises.
According to Oram, the goal is to create both job creators and job seekers by harnessing the potential of tribal youth and reaching and handholding a larger number of Scheduled Tribe innovators and entrepreneurs.
Uikey highlighted the growth of tribal communities in education, health, digital infrastructure and AI.
Scheduled Tribes-led Startups: Focus on tribal innovation and entrepreneurship
Ranjana Chopra, Secretary, Ministry of Tribal Affairs, said innovation is not something new to the tribal communities but part of their way of life.
Chopra noted that traditional tribal systems hold a wealth of innovation that has often been lost to the modern world and needs to be streamlined with a structured strategy.
She also outlined the priorities for the partnership, including bridging the gap between the total number of startups in the country and the number of Scheduled Tribes-led startups, while handholding a much larger number of ST entrepreneurs.
Commenting on the MoU, Seeram Sambasiva Rao, IAS, Special Secretary, Electronics & IT, Government of Kerala, said it is a vital step for the socio-economic empowerment of ST communities, besides promoting innovative technology-oriented projects of tribal youth.
KSUM CEO Anoop Ambika said the ideal startup ecosystem in the state is conducive to identifying and scaling up innovation-driven entrepreneurship among ST communities.
The initiative seeks to facilitate innovation-led enterprise development by strengthening access to markets, finance and investor networks and integrating tribal entrepreneurs (Scheduled Tribes-led startups) into India’s growing startup landscape.
