COIMBATORE: The Tamil Nadu govt’s first village startup community was launched at Pillaiappampalayam in Coimbatore district on Wednesday. The village startup community is a state-wide rural entrepreneurship initiative under StartupTN’s Gramam Thorum Puthozhil Scheme. This initiative aims at nurturing 100 innovative startups in 100 villages in the state. Under the scheme, StartupTN’s ten regional hubs will develop rural startup ecosystems in ten villages, offering incubation support, market validation, and legal and branding assistance. One eligible venture from each village will be supported through an equity-free Tanseed (Tamil Nadu Startup Seed Grant Fund) grant of ₹1,00,000 to accelerate prototype development and early market access. A centralised digital dashboard will track progress, document best practices and support scale-up across the state.The Pillaiappampalayam Startup Community has been launched in association with Rural Women Technology Park and PSGR Krishnammal College for Women. The community will focus on strengthening the rural innovation ecosystem, empowering youth, women and disabled people, and supporting ideation, prototyping and mentorship for early-stage entrepreneurs. Around 10 villages in Coimbatore have been shortlisted for the scheme, which includes Annur block, Karamadai and other village communities.The launch was presided over by Sanket Balwant Waghe, additional collector, District Rural Development Agency, Coimbatore, in the presence of Sivakumar Palanisamy, vice-president & chief of staff, StartupTN.Talking to TOI regarding the scheme, Palanisamy said, “Pillaiappampalayam village in Annur block had developed an entrepreneurial ecosystem a decade ago. Taking this as a model, more support will be extended to this community. Similar ecosystems will be developed across Tamil Nadu. For this village, the focus areas are food processing, rural development, women and transgender empowerment and support to the disabled people. When we reach out to 1,000 entrepreneurial ideas, we shall make it to more than 100 concrete ones. The shortlisted ideas will be connected to the pre-incubation centres. The entire scheme is designed in a Do It Yourself model where members of academia and corporates are linked to the village representative, anchored by StartupTN.”
