Prime Minister Narendra Modi. (File Photo: IANS)
By Sourabh Kulesh
Mumbai, April 7 (IANS) In a fillip to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's 'Digital India' and 'Startup India' initiatives, software and cloud giant Oracle on Thursday announced it is opening its first 'Oracle Startup Cloud Accelerator' in Bengaluru on April 8.
The announcement was made at the Oracle CloudWorld event here following Oracle CEO Safra Catz's meeting with the prime minister and $400 million worth of investments in technology hub Bengaluru announced during the 'Make in India Week' in Mumbai last month.
The Oracle Startup Cloud Accelerator will be inaugurated by Thomas Kurian, the company's president of product development. Several more such centres are slated to be launched later in Chennai, Gurgaon, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Noida, Pune, Thiruvananthapuram and Vijayawada, the company said.
"India is in an exciting phase of growth, innovation and development. We chose Bengaluru for our first centre because it is the second best funded startup hub in the world, outside of USA," Kurian said.
The Oracle initiative aims to help speed up startups' development through a combination of technical and business mentoring.
"Through Oracle Startup Cloud Accelerator and growing popularity of cloud as an alternate computing model, we want to be the catalyst for new business ideas. 'Startup India' initiative matches our agenda of fostering entrepreneurship and promoting innovation by creating the right ecosystem for growth and development," Kurian said.
In order to help startups have a better chance of succeeding, the Bengaluru centre will provide them with structured mentoring, technology, co-working space, access to Oracle's customers and partners, access to investors and free credits on Oracle Cloud.
Kurian said many companies contacted Oracle for the launch of the Bengaluru centre.
"We have an investment venture. Our goal of this launch is to make sure startups are successful and not to look it as an investment or business from Oracle," Kurian told reporters here.
The Oracle Startup Cloud Accelerator is open to early-stage technology and technology-enabled startups who are building innovative solutions. The product or service should have the potential to make an impact on customers in the specific industry segment they are targeting, Oracle said.
Prospective startup applications will be reviewed through a meticulous qualification process. The selected start-ups will get benefits of a six month acceleration facilitated by technical and business experts from industry and oracle, the company added.
Startups can apply online till May 5.
Meanwhile, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, while inaugurating the cloud summit on Thursday, lauded Oracle's initiative.
"Cloud computing has changed the landscape of governance. I think in days to come we will be able to see many exciting changes which would impact people's lives in positive manner," Fadnavis said.
He added that although India is a developing country, it has managed to spend a lot of resources on development. What pulled the country back was the failure to create a credible and accountable delivery system, he noted.
"All the services should be delivered on a single click and with partners like Oracle, this is now possible," he said, adding that Oracle CloudWorld is resonating with the prime minister's idea to make a digitally empowered country.
Speaking about the work done in the direction of developing smart cities in Maharashtra, Fadnavis said he has already launched the first smart city project in Navi Mumbai.
"Out of 34 services, 18 have already been launched and in next 3-4 years the project will be completed with an investment of Rs.3,400 crores. It will be the first smart city of India. We have identified 10 more cities for this purpose," he said.
The Maharashtra government is also collaborating with Microsoft to make smart villages. "One such village would be ready soon and we would like to create 50 more smart villages," Fadnavis added.
(Sourabh Kulesh can be contacted at sourabh.k@ians.in)
