Bhamashah Technohub Jaipur – India’s biggest startup hub opens in Jaipur

Jaipur: Country’s largest startup incubation hub in Jaipur having 700-seat capacity went live on Thursday lending a major fillip to entrepreneurial ecosystem in Rajasthan. Built in record 15 months with an investment of about Rs 72 crore, the 7-story Bhamashah Technohub provides startups free use of its plug-and-play workstations, conference facilities, cafeteria, tinkering labs, gym etc.

 

 

Inaugurating the hub here, chief minister Vasundhara Raje said that Bhamashah Technohub is a common platform for startups, accelerators, investors, VCs and HNIs and I want the youth of the state to make full use of the facility and contribute to the efforts of making Rajasthan a leading state in the country.

 

 

She said the state government has created Rs 500 crore fund to improve the startup ecosystem in the state and create and nurture entrepreneurial talent. “More than 1000 startups have joined the state government’s initiative,” she added.

 

 

Often compared to T-Hub in Hyderabad, top government officials said there is a basic difference, not only in size but also in the model.

“The incubation centre will not charge any kind of fee from startups as well as entrepreneurs and will provide free facilities unlike T-Hub in Hyderabad which charges a fee for different facilities. It is bigger than the biggest T-Hubs operational in India,” said Akhil Arora, principal secretary, state IT and communication department.

 

 

The incubation centre is a landmark for the state government which has been working to make Rajasthan a well-known destination in the country in entrepreneirship and innovation. In 2015, it first came out with a startup policy offering various 3/10/2019 fiscal incentives to youths to take up entrepreneurship as a career.

 

 

“From galvanizing students community to providing infrastructure, funding, ecosystem, handholding, finding investors and mentors,

Rajasthan’s vision to promote entrepreneurship is comprehensive. No doubt, Bangalore is the leader in the startup space but one can only find one kind of ventures there whereas in Rajasthan, the ideas and innovations are diverse covering news areas,” said Prajakt Raut, co-founder of Applyifi who had flown in from Gurgaon to attend the event.

 

 

Of late, governments have started encouraging entrepreneurship as it reduces the burden on them of generating new jobs.

 

 

Youths choosing entrepreneurship not only find a job for themselves but also create for others.

 

 

“There are many private incubators in the country but in the last couple of years, the state governments has taken it seriously.

 

 

Rajasthan may be leading the race but states like Gujarat, Telengana, and Kerala, have invested in creating such incubation centres and have also rolled out startup polices. Punjab and Madhya Pradesh are also in the process of setting up such hubs in their states,” said Chintan Bakshi, CEO of Startup Oasis.

 

 

TV Mohandas Pai, former director of Infosys and a member in the chief minister’s advisory committee, one of the brains behind the hub, heaped praise on the e-governance initiative of the government saying there is no state in the country which match Rajasthan in adopting technology in delivering social welfare schemes.

 

 

“Much before Aadhaar was introduced in the country, Rajasthan had given the Bhamashah scheme in 2005-06,” Pai said.