Defence ministry to promote start-ups: Parrikar

Panaji, April 8 (IANS) Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar on Friday said his ministry was in the process of formulating a special programme to promote start-ups.

"The defence ministry will start a programme to promote start-ups. The ministry has never done something like this before but is going out of the way into (doing) something different," Parrikar said at the inauguration of a business incubation centre here.

Parrikar, a former Goa chief minister, said he was keen on offering defence ministry-related research and development projects to the coastal state.

"There is an open offer to the Goa government... in another month or two, we can work out a mechanism to ensure that the talent among the Goans doesn't go waste," the minister said.

Lamenting the brain drain from Goa, Parrikar said: "All brilliant minds from Goa go to the US and hardworking Goans flock to the Middle-East. What is left is a very diluted form of society; so we should develop ourselves again. There shouldn't be any brain drain."