Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh says, rules and regulations are being simplified in DST for accessing liberal funding by innovative Start-Ups

Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Science & Technology; Minister of State (Independent Charge) Earth Sciences; MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh today felicitated the “Beating Retreat’ Drone Light Show “StartUps” who had mesmerised the whole nation by lighting the sky with colourful tricolour at New Delhi’s vijaychowk on the evening of 29th January.

“Boatlab” Start-Up Co-founders,SaritaAhlawat from Haryana, TanmayBunkar from Madhya Pradesh and Anuj Kumar Barnwal from Bihar, were present along with their other team members numbering around 30. They were personally felicitated and honoured by the Minister.

Congratulating them for their historic feat which they had accomplished within six months of undertaking the project, Dr Jitendra Singh said, the nation was proud of them and by honouring them, the Ministry of Science & Technology was actually complimenting itself for having discovered such incredible young scientific brains. He said, this heralds the Ministry’s new approach to reach out and discover the hidden potentials across the country and then support them to enable them to grow and groom.

Dr Jitendra Singh directed the senior officials to rope in Industries to develop an integrated approach to create a kind of revolving fund to support the innovative Start-Ups.The Minister said, rules and regulations are being simplified in the Department of Science & Technology (DST) for accessing liberal funding by innovative Start-Ups.

Dr.Jitendra Singh said, issues like Single Window Clearance, speedy processing of projects, facilities for incubation and review of matching funding obligation by Start-Ups will soon be notified for promotion of Start-Ups ecosystem in the country.

Referring to the Union Budget passed yesterday, Dr Jitendra Singh said that the emphasis on Drones including “Drone Shakti” through Start-Ups and utilisation of Kisan Drones in the agriculture sector are steps to fulfill Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of making India a Global Hub of Start-up Ecosystem.

The Minister said, Boatlab had proved to the world that an Indian Start-Up could accomplish the much talked and much appreciated unique feat of lighting up the sky with 1,000 Drones, in one go during the Beating Retreat Ceremony.

The event was attended by Dr S. Chandrasekhar, Secretary DST, Dr.Shekhar Mande, Secretary CSIR, Dr Rajesh Gokhale Secretary Department of Biotechnology, Dr. M. Ravichandran Secretary, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Prof Ashutosh Sharma, former Secretary, DST, Rajesh Kumar Pathak, Secretary, TDB and other senior officials.

MD of Boatlab Dynamics Private Limited Dr SaritaAhlawat and pioneers of Drone Show TanmayBunkar, Sujit Rana, Mohit Sharma, HarshitBatra, KunalMeena and the entire team of engineers gathered together at PrithviBhawan to celebrate the success of Boatlab.

The Minister informed that the Technology Development Board is examining two funding proposals received from Ladakh and North-East Start-Ups. He said, the liberal availability of funds is a precondition for sustainability of Start-Ups and for that Industry must partner with Central Scientific Departments. It may be recalled that Boatlab Dynamics was given an initial seed fund of Rs One crore rupees for R&D by Department of Science & Technology (DST) and subsequently RsRs 2.5 crore for scale-up and commercialisation by Technology Development Board to develop first of its kind technological project in India.

Secretary DST & Chairperson, TDB said that “I am confident that the TDB will continue to play an important part in enabling commercialization of Indigenous technologies in the coming years and will grow multi-fold under the current leadership. TDB will also play a significant role in supporting start-ups and help them grow and contribute to the AtmaNirbhar Bharat Mission.

Rajesh Kumar Pathak, IP&TAFS, Secretary, TDB stated that, “TDB is proud to support the dreams of these young dreamers of Botlab Dynamics led by their founders Dr SaritaAhlawat, Mr. TanmayBunkar& Mr. Anuj Kumar Barnwal for lighting up the sky with 1000 drones and performing the spectacular drone light show and making India the 4th country in the world to achieve this feat.

Boatlab Co-Founder SaritaAhlawat said that the entire StartUp team of Botlab is grateful to the Ministry of Science and Technology, Technology Development Board, Department of Science and Technology and IIT Delhi for the financial support in the crucial time. We could successfully conceptualise the dream of Drone show on the Republic Day Retreat Ceremony only because of the financial assistance received form the various bodies of the Ministry of Science and Technology.

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