Directorate

Software Technology Parks of India (STPI), under the administrative control of the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY), promotes innovation and research and development (R&D), and is eyeing to increase data centers footprint in India. In an interaction with ETTelecom's Muntazir Abbas, STPI Director General, Arvind Kumar speaks on Center for Entrepreneurship and EMC 2.0 schemes, and said that the organisation is planning to set up new data centres. Edited excerpts.

What are STPI objectives, and your focus areas?

STPI basically started with the concept of Softex form. In the IT/ITes industry , if they want to export the software, they need some certificate by which they can export the software and legitimize the money which is required by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). We provide a one-stop solution. Now, our focus is more on the Center for Entrepreneurship. So, we are developing the Center of Entrepreneurship all over the country. We have planned 25. We have done the 20th one in Lucknow, which is called MedTech on medical products. So, all Center of Entrepreneurship are domain specific.

Do you have any timeline for that?

I think by the end of this calendar year, we will be able to complete 25.

What is the industry's and the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY) role in driving this?

So, there are two schemes, one is directly the Center of Entrepreneurship (CoE) which is being driven by the STPI. This model is basically industry-driven, we got some partners in the form of let us say state governments. We appoint a Chief Operating Officer (COO) there. He undertakes the day-to-day activity of the CoE. So, we are not intervening day to day. We just established it, arranged the fund for them, arranged the equipment and they are working independently. So, anybody who wants to do some sort of startup in medical electronics or health informatics, they can get the incubation space there and they can start it. So, all Center of Entrepreneurships are domain-specific like we are planning one on blockchain technology in Gurgaon. We have eight CoEs in the Northeast, a combination of that is called Octane.

Apart from this, MeitY also has some plans for the Center of Entrepreneurship, it is called NGIS (next generation incubation scheme) that is fully funded by MeitY.

How is this different from CoE?

This is different from CoE. In the NGIS scheme, MeitY has said that they want in Tier2/Tier3 cities like Prayagraj, where the government has given some Rs 90 crores to STPI. MeitY has also asked to give seed funds to the innovator. So we also provide Rs 25 lakh as a seed fund to them. So, this model is the same, but the funding scheme is different.

But how much total outlay for the CoE?

Every CoE has its own budget. On an average we can say it is somewhere around 15 to 20 crores for five years.

Following the recent budgetary proposals that also talks about digital currency, how are you focussing on blockchain?

We have some programs called Chunauti 1.0, Chunauti 2.0. It's called an open competition program. So, we continue to have the competition program and these people come to us, give us presentations for pitching so they pitch. We have state level and Central committees and they have to pitch in their project.

Now the digital currency is the new concept. If anyone comes to us, and says, as a digital currency, this is their product. And we see this is in line with the government of India's objective and if this will result in something which is required for the country then, we allow it and handholding is done by us. We just look into whether its ideas are workable. Blockchain is the technology which is good for trusted networks or for making something which is called, the ledger technology. It can also be used very much in the FinTech domain.

How is EMC 2.0 different from the previous version?

EMC 1.0 was a little limited, so we have increased the scope in EMC 2.0 . In EMC 2.0, you can work somewhere outside. So usually, in the EMC 1.0, private players and small units were present, but in EMC 2.0 they have ensured that only the government bodies (public government venture) but there has to be some involvement of the government out there. In EMC 2.0, at least 10 to 20% of the entire place has to be taken up by a bigger unit and only if that unit is there, only then will we allow it.

How many such clusters are there currently?

In EMC 2.0, we have two such clusters already approved with a proposed area of around 1,000 acres and the cost of that will be around Rs 1,400 crores. That will be the development cost. Then the units will come, they will do their own investment, the anchor unit will come.

Where are these two clusters?

These clusters are Haryana and other in Andhra Pradesh, Vizag district. Three applications which are in the pipeline and in the process of approval are from Telangana, Uttarakhand and Maharashtra. We have also received four more applications from Himachal Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Bihar which are in the process of submitting it. So, there is a traction around that and we are ensuring that there has to be a very clear-cut success criteria only then governments spend their money out there.

So the government is also giving subsidies?

50% of their development cost will be borne by the EMC.

What are your data centre plans?

We want to increase our footprint in data centers actually. Something we want to do in the data centers. We have data centers at four places- Chennai, Bangalore, Bhubaneshwar, and Mohali. We have a mid-sized or even a small sized data center, but we want to increase our footprint there and that is one thing which we are looking at immediately.

What are these incubation centers?

These centers mean we have incubation space there. Any young innovative entrepreneur if they want to develop software, they want 5-10 seats, like 5-10 workstations, we provide that space to them at a very nominal rate. So, let us say 2000 rupees per month per seat where you will have electricity, water, everything, so they can come, develop their software and start their company so, if you require a 8-10 workstation for starting company then you're not required to take a big space, pay the rent, electricity, lot of other problems. So, you will have ready-made built-in space and you will just come. It’s called Incubation Center, we call plug and play centres.

So, 62 you already have?

We have 62 centres and 22 are in the pipeline.

3 new electronic clusters proposals under consideration: STPI chief

"Three applications have been received for setting up electronic manufacturing clusters (EMC) in the states of Telangana, Uttarakhand and Maharashtra which are being reviewed for approval," Arvind Kumar, director-general, Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) said, adding that states such as Himachal Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Bihar are in the process to apply for the Central scheme.

The Software Technology Park of India (STPI), which has an extensive network around the country, will play the role of facilitator for data centre entrepreneurs and investors, and facilitate their engagement with the States for approvals, said Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Union Minister of State for Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY).

He was in the city to interact with industry members – start-ups, MSME/SMEs and other companies – on the Draft National Data Centre and Cloud Policy.

“Today, I learnt about single point of contact as more and more people want the facilitation at the State level,” he told newspersons after the meeting. There were many ‘high quality’ suggestions around Cloud, its security, the entry and exit on to the Cloud, portability and interface between multiple clouds, he added.

Energy efficient & sustainable

The National Data Centre & Cloud Policy intends to facilitate setting up of energy efficient, sustainable and green data centres. However, to do this, the State governments have to do some work including service level agreements (SLAs) from the discoms, and between the discom and the company.

The governments of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka are keen to pursue this investment. This is like the Y2K movement for the entire digital space. “In the next 1-2 years, the States, start-ups and investors who make a move and pursue these opportunities will only succeed,” he added.

The policy’s objectives include accelerating the growth of the data centres and Cloud services and encouraging the usage of indigenous platforms/solutions in the data centre, said a release.

Growth projection of digital economy

The size of the digital economy in India is estimated to grow exponentially from around $200 billion to $1 trillion by 2025-26. At present, India has 499 MW installed power capacity for data centres and is projected to grow to 1,007 MW by 2023.

Under the hyperscale data centre scheme, the government is targeting investment of ₹3 lakh crore in the next five years, said Amitesh Kumar Sinha, Joint Secretary, MeitY. The proposed draft policy intends to accelerate the growth in the project in the projected data centre capacity with a capacity addition of 2,000 MW by 2027, he said.

To a question on cybersecurity, the Minister said that presently 80 crore Indians are using the Internet, and in the next two years 1.2 billion Indians will be using it for various purposes from studies to work to entertainment. In this aspect, cybersecurity plays a vital role and the government of India has created many institutions to make the internet safe and secure, he said.

On the semiconductor industry, the Minister said that this government has committed around $30 billion in to expanding the electronics and semiconductor ecosystem. This is an unprecedented investment by the Centre in to manufacturing, hi-tech and digital space. Every leading name in electronic manufacturing is in India. This includes Samsung, Foxconn, Pegaton and Vistron.

“We expect the same to be in the semiconductor space. Some State governments pursuing these opportunities, investment and jobs include Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Telengana for electronic manufacturing,” he said.

On the recent workers’ issue at Foxconn plant in Chennai, the Minister said, “Those who need to have the discussion, had the discussion. These are important investments for the State and the country. We must all do our best to make sure that these investments grow, expand and create jobs. I publicly tweeted about that, and don’t want to say anything today.”

Gaming Fund under the umbrella of Hyderabad headquartered SucSEED Indovation Fund continues to work with various partners to discover and support gaming start-ups with seed funding and organize mentorship support from successful Gaming Founders & experienced Influencers.

SucSEED Indovation Fund and STPI led IMAGE CoE had announced their collaboration earlier to aid the gaming startup ecosystem. Gaming startups would be incubated with STPI IMAGE COE and SucSEED Innovation Fund would invest in the select Gaming Startups from the cohort. Up to $100,000 in funding will be offered for early-stage product development. Several successful Gaming Founders have joined the SucSEED Indovation Fund to create a Gaming Sub-Fund for this purpose and they bring the immense experience as value-add alongside their capital. United Gamers Hideout (UGH) ESports and Stareout games are the two such startups from Cohort-1 that have received funding from SucSEED Indovation Gaming Fund through this partnership.

UGH creates innovative esports IPs that enables professional gaming in India. Unlike other esports leagues, UGH offers a unique dual system of talent hunt feeding into a franchise style league. Providing a platform for esports teams from around the world to scout players for professional contracts to represent them in our new franchised league. UGH has already established a strong event roadmap for the next two years including tournament licenses and strategic partnerships.

United Gamers Hideout was established in September 2019 by Abhisek Moharana with the vision to create the path for millions of aspiring players to play professionally and represent Indian at global leve

Abhisek Moharana, Founder and CEO at United Gamers Hideout said, “In spite of the pandemic we have seen a huge growth in professional gaming in India. UGH is filling the gap in the market with regards to upskilling the aspiring gamers and creating the high quality content the esports community craves for”. He further added that “The seed funding we raised from SucSEED Indovation and such established Gaming Angel Investors will help us in hiring the best talent and for accelerating our journey to create the biggest esports IP of India”.

Stareout games is a hyper casual game studio. Unlike other game studios, Stareout takes a regional content approach for giving a more immersive gaming experience for users. During the past 6 months,

Stareout was able to launch and attract over 100k organic users across their games.

Vamsi Raju, Founder and CEO at Stareout games said, “Hyper Casual gaming is a low commitment and quick stress relief alternative for long form entertainment. We are building gaming experiences that are tailored to the desi audience and are worth playing”. He further added that “The seed fund raised from SucSEED Indovation will help us prove the product market fit for regional based games which people can play in their local languages, targeting tier 2 and tier 3 cities primarily. We will be working on creating new and unique user acquisition strategies to get users in India at the lowest possible cost.”

Founded in 2019, Stareout Games is a gaming consultancy company catering to global publishers and game studios. Over the years with the experiences of building and scaling hyper casual games across various markets & considering the rapid growth in Indian markets, Stareout Games has pivoted the business model and started launching under our own banner.

Vikrant Varshney, Co-Founder & Managing Partner of SucSEED Indovation Fund, said “The global gaming market was valued at USD 173.70 billion in 2020, and it is expected to reach a value of USD 314.40 billion by 2026, registering a CAGR of 9.64% over 2021-2026. We believe that this relationship will increase our footprint & exposure in the gaming community by assisting and aiding these early stage startups in their growth and development, as the gaming sector has a high potential.”

Sridhar Muppidi, Founder of PurpleTalk and of YesGnome, one of the largest game development and publishing companies in India, who is one of the key stakeholders in the SucSEED Indovation Gaming Sub-Fund; said: "India, with its immense talent pool, can potentially grab a sizable chunk of the $100B global gaming industry. However, there aren't enough companies going after this opportunity, so some of us in the industry figured the best way to accelerate this is by investing at a pre-seed stage in a large number of gaming entrepreneurs. To achieve this, most of the top gaming enterprises and companies in India have come together to launch this Gaming fund with SucSEED."

SucSEED Indovation Fund is a SEBI-registered Cat-I AIF-VC Fund-Angel Fund that focuses on early-stage start-ups involved in addressing mass-market problems with the help of deep-tech breakthroughs. Their primary funding focus is on Seed to Growth and Pre-Series A-stage companies. The Fund's General partners have a combined expertise of more than 100 years in Technology, Venture Capital, and the startup ecosystem, and have invested in more than 70 companies already and have successful exits to their credit.

IMAGE Center of Entrepreneurship  is an initiative by Software Tech Parks of India (STPI) in conjunction with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and the Government Of Telangana. The IMAGE CoE Accelerator Program is a one-of-a-kind program that provides mentorship, office space, seed funding, and other incentives to entrepreneurs in the gaming, computer vision, artificial intelligence, and VFX industries. IMAGE CoE Accelerator Program is currently running its pilot cohorts and has started registrations for the next cohort.