What are Startup Incubators and Atal Incubation Centres?

Many entrepreneurs find it challenging to set up their startups, especially during the initial stages due to the lack of knowledge and experience. This is where a startup incubator comes in.

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A startup incubator is a firm or institute that aids the startups through all the stages, i.e. from their establishment to upscaling.
The startup incubators usually come from a business and technology background and offer all kinds of services under one roof viz. business and technology advice, working capital, business facilities including co-working spaces and dedicated office spaces, network connections, and more.

Incubators Under the Startup Policy

Incubators play a pivotal role in the government’s Startup Policy. Although there are a great number of non-institute incubators across the nation, many are sponsored by the top education institutes like IITs and IIMs as well.
Some examples include SIDBI Innovation & Incubation Center, IIT Kanpur; TBI, BITS Pilani; ICA (Advertising) Com-Cubator, MICA Ahmedabad; Rural Technology Business Incubator (RTBI), IIT Madras, etc.
Of all the recognized incubators around the country, 50+ are covered under the Startup India Scheme.

The Atal Incubator Centres

In May 2016, the government’s think-tank NITI Aayog launched 500 Atal tinkering labs and 100 incubation centres.
Applications are being invited from institutes and individuals for establishing new Atal Incubation Centres (AIC) for which the majority of entities that belong to the business and technology sectors, including R&D institutes, individual groups, business accelerators, and even higher education institutes are eligible.
The labs provide one-time establishment grant-in-aid of Rs. 10 lakhs to schools and each lab gets Rs. 10 lakhs for 5 years for operational expenses.
The AIC provide all kinds of facilities to the start-up entrepreneurs and innovators in India with a grant-in-aid of Rs. 10 crores that’s to be set up by the centre.