Government Launches Centralised Startup Ecosystem Platform BHASKAR

The government on Monday launched BHASKAR, short for Bharat Startup Knowledge Access Registry, as a one-stop platform for all things startups.

Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal launched the platform, which aims to bring together investors, startups, entrepreneurs, mentors and government bodies in the ecosystem on a single window platform where entities can connect and collaborate.

Minister Goyal added that Startup India, which is currently housed under the DPIIT's Invest India, can also be spun off as a separate entity and BHASKAR could be launched as a separate Section 8 company, where all ecosystem members could actually become shareholders. 

"Many of our startups, unicorns are ripe to go international. The last 7-8 years have been successful, with at least one unicorn per month coming out of India's stable. We must aspire to have our own Silicon Valley, where all stakeholders are housed. BHASKAR is an attempt at that," Goyal said.