Kottayam: Kerala has allocated Rs 1,375 crore for promoting startups, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said on Tuesday.

The government target is to help 1,500 startups, he said while inaugurating the third edition of Young Entrepreneur Summit (YES 3 D -2017) organised by Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation KSIDC) in Kochi on Tuesday. The theme of the summit is ‘Disrupt, Discover and Develop’.

He said that of the allocated amount, Rs 549 crore will be used for developing the IT sector.

The KSIDC has succeeded in venturing into youth domain to attract them to government schemes. The focus should be on IT, agriculture, tourism, health sectors with active participation of the youth. The startup should not be confined to only IT sector but should be tried in other areas like waste management, he said.

The government will improve infrastructure facilities. The youth entrepreneurs should study in detail the opportunity available in the state. The Government would come out with plan to help the youth start enterprises that would add value to agricultural products, he said.

The summit will offer guidance on facilitating policy support, infrastructure development, incubation facilitation, financial assistance scheme and mentoring support.

Parallel sessions will be held on agro and food processing, sustainable technologies, biotechnology/bio-medical and future technologies.

Officials from Start Up India team will interact with the aspirant entrepreneurs. Student entrepreneurs will showcase their innovative ideas at the venue.