India mulling startups exchanges with Germany, Saarc

New Delhi, June 19 (IANS) To further develop the ecosystem for startups in India, the government is working on ways to step up the exchanges with startups from countries like Germany and in the South Asian region, Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Monday.

"We have negotiated with Germany for an exchange of ideas with German startups under an existing arrangement between our countries," Sitharaman said here at the launch of the Startup India Hub online platform designed to be a single point of contact for the startup community.

"We are currently working on the modalities of how to exchange ideas with German startups, and hope to realise this within some months," she said.

The Minister said that given the complementarities among the South Asian nations, the government is actively considering a South Asian Association for Regional Coperation (Saarc) startups exchange programme.

"We are looking at organising a Saarc countries' meet for startups, where mutually beneficial ideas for innovation can be worked out... the inter-relationships and synergies can be worked out better because South Asian minds have similar thinking," Sitharaman said.

"We'll create the space for startups to interact, but the topics, format, who to invite etcetera have to be decided by the startups themeselves," she added.