Bihar Emerges as a leading start-up hub in the country – Jibesh Kumar, IT Minister, Govt. of Bihar

Patna: Bihar Government has taken one of the progressive steps in line with campaign ‘Invest IT Bihar,’ by promoting applications for rent-free IT/ITeS & ESDM-based office space to prevent the migration of skilled youth like IT professionals and, to provide them with world-class facilities and state of the art infrastructure amid COVID’s pandemic.

Shri Jibesh Kumar, Hon’ble Minister Government of Bihar, Department of Information Technology, said that the department’s initiative to encourage entrepreneurs and investors to invest in the IT industry and to establish Bihar as the most privileged investment destination, is taking key steps under the ‘Invest IT Bihar Campaign’ Investment initiative. Inviting applications for rent-free space at Start-Up Hub at Biscomaun Tower, Patna should be seen as a part of the initiative.We seek to encourage the investors to invest in Bihar’s IT sector and to make Bihar a major IT hub in Eastern India – Jibesh Kumat, IT minister, Govt. of Bihar

The Department of Information Technology, Government of Bihar has set up 78 Workstations, 33 independent Cabins and a 60-seater Call Center, all Wi-Fi enabled, with robust power backup in a total area of 12,000 square feet on 9th & 13th floors of Biscoumaun Tower, Patna.

Over 80 registrations and 48 applications with demand draft has been received from the startup operating in different sectors, such as business process outsourcing, knowledge process outsourcing, data analytics, internet of things and business process management for allotment of rent free office space, by the Department.

An IT Park will be established at Bihta, 30 km from Patna, similar to Bangalore International Tech Park and Hyderabad Software Technology Park.

The state is investing judiciously in developing IT parks at Patna, Bihta, Rajgir, Darbhanga and Bhagalpur. Besides setting up these 5 IT parks it also has plans to build the largest IT tower in heart of capital town, the Dak-bungalow intersection, to house IT/ ITeS and electronics companies. This will give the state’s young employees enormous employment opportunities.

As per the Bihar Start-Up Policy, 2017

Start-up in Bihar means an entity, incorporated or registered in Bihar not prior to five years with an annual turnover not exceeding INR25Cr. in any preceding financial year, working towards innovation, development, deployment or commercialization of new products, processes or services driven by technology or intellectual property.

If the turnover of an entity for the previous financial years has exceeded INR25 Cr. and/ or it has completed 5 years from the date of incorporation/ registration, the entity will not be able to avail the benefits of this policy

One can only avail the benefits of this policy provided that such entity is not formed by splitting up, or reconstruction, of a business already in existence and should not have been formed by the demerger or reconstitution of a business already in existence

Also, such entity should not be a holding company and should not be a subsidiary of any firm already in existence or except the subsidiary of any start-up

Bihar Start-up Policy 2017 aims to establish a separate and transparent Eco-System, where the State shall provide funding, promotion and policy support. The State has set up a trust that acts as the nodal authority to carry out this policy with an initial corpus of INR 500 Cr.

“Policies have been eased to attract investors. There is no in-sufficiency of economical skilled workforce in the state too. All this will allure the investors towards investing in Bihar. The steps taken by Department of Information Technology, Government of Bihar will lead Bihar to develop its identity as strong and sustainable IT hub in the region and will create employment opportunities for the people.