BHUBANESWAR: The Atal Innovation Centre (AIC)-SOA Foundation, an initiative of the SOA University, aimed at spawning startups involving students, was inaugurated at Institute of Technical Education and Research (ITER) on Thursday.

Inaugurating the facility, MSME and Fisheries, and ARD minister Gokulananda Mallik said the state government’s startup policy is focused on encouraging students and youths and strengthening the entrepreneurial ecosystem in Odisha. Congratulating SOA for its efforts in research and innovation, he said, “Acquiring skills is vital today, and it is for the youth to focus on innovation and start-ups to boost the economy.”

Set up with support from the Atal Innovation Mission of NITI Aayog, which was launched in 2016, the AIC-SOA Foundation will act as a catalyst in transforming innovative ideas into scalable and sustainable ventures, thereby strengthening the entrepreneurial ecosystem in the state and across the country.

AIM mission director Deepak Bagla said that six out of every 10 students are likely to launch their own startups in the near future. “New startups are being added every day, pointing to a new engine of growth. While there were only 400 startups in the country in January 2016, nearly 2,00,000 have been registered since then,” he said.

SOA vice-chancellor Pradipta Kumar Nanda, CEO of Startup Odisha Smruti Ranjan Pradhan, SOA Pro-V-C Prof Prasanta Kumar Patra, and director of SOA’s Centre for Quantum Science and Technology Prasanta Kumar Panigrahi were present on the occasion.