The state MSME (micro, small & medium enterprises) department has invited comments from the apex industry associations on the draft entrepreneurship policy.The industry representative bodies from whom the suggestions have been invited are Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Utkal Chamber of Commerce & industry (UCCI), North Odisha Chamber of Commerce & Industry (NOCCI), Odisha Assembly of Small & Medium Enterprises (OASME), Odisha Industries Federation (OIF), Odisha Industries' Association (OIA) and Odisha Young Entrepreneurs' Association (OYEA).

The entrepreneurship policy aims at fostering entrepreneurship among the youth to make Odisha one of the leading states in entrepreneurship development and innovation.

The policy offers fiscal incentives like reviving the operations of the Odisha State Financial Corporation (OSFC) to improve the credit access of the MSMEs.

The policy talks of creation of corpus fund of Rs 100 crore and organising bank funding to the tune of Rs five lakh without any collateral security to entrepreneurs launching new ventures.

It also suggests providing interest subvention support to banks at seven per cent for financing start-up micro enterprises and eight per cent for start-up small enterprises.

Also, there is a provision of offering capital subsidy to the tune of 50 per cent of the amount invested in fixed capital except land up to Rs 20 lakh.

The policy's mission is to promote a culture of entrepreneurship and create an eco-system in which entrepreneurial initiatives thrive with the provision of simplified procedures, improved access to credit, business skills training and support for technology innovation.

The objectives include bringing about an attitudinal change by eliminating the negative biases associated with entrepreneurship and highlighting its role in socio-economic development, making entrepreneurship a movement by imparting entrepreneurship education in schools, colleges and vocational education institutions and encourage technology innovation by setting up incubation centres.

Under the entrepreneurship policy, universities and colleges in the state shall be encouraged to set up Entrepreneurship Development Cells (EDCs) to provide youth with requisite information and hand holding support to implement their ideas and potential ventures.

A task force will be set up comprising representatives from MSME department, Biju Patnaik University of Technology (BPUT) and a team of Techpedia (a portal of technology projects) to forge linkage between MSME, academia, economic and social entrepreneurs. BPUT will organize individual visits of students to different MSME clusters and rural areas to identify problems which can be solved through final year projects.

Since technology business incubators have emerged as the major source of innovation globally, the government will take adequate steps to ameliorate the state of incubators based on their advantages.

Steps shall be taken to provide incubators and innovators with access to testing facilities and laboratories wherever needed at a subsidized rate. The government would also take measures to augment infrastructure of high performing incubators.

Also, successful entrepreneurs and companies will be encouraged to mentor dynamic ventures through Mentor-Mentee Programme (MMP), where new enterprises will be mentored and provided hand holding support for a period of one year.

EDCs will organize workshops to provide training on ICT (information & communication technology) and ICT use in business activities to entrepreneurs to improve their capabilities and make them more competitive.

The policy would strive to promote institutional synergies by bridging gaps between academia, research institutes, public sector and private enterprises to facilitate exchange of ideas.

In order to do this, the government would promote organization of periodic interactions among stakeholder agencies.