Hubballli (Karnataka) July 18 (IANS) NITI Ayog Chairman Amitabh Kant on Thursday unveiled a startup incubation centre in this north Karnataka town to promote entrepreneurship in tier-2 and tier-3 cities.
"India needs disruptive innovation to tackle challenges in health education and agriculture sectors. We have to take a leap in social innovation to make 60 per cent of the population in rural areas a part of the growth story " he said after dedicating the hi-tech facility to the nation.
Built by Sandbox Startups a technology business incubator and promoted by the US-based technocrat Gururaj Deshpande the startup facility can house about 100 companies at a time.
Noting that real solutions for the country s problems should come from tier-2 and tier-3 cities Kant said Indian could become a role model for the world if it could find solutions for the challenges faced by its 1.3 billion population.
"We can lead the world with our innovations " he said.
Stressing on inclusive growth Kant said 8-10 per cent GDP growth rate per annum cannot be achieved if majority of the people living in non-metros were not part of the growth cycle.
"The Central government is supporting 25 incubation centres and hand-holding them to find solutions to many challenges facing the country " he said.
As part of its inclusive growth strategy the NDA government has identified 115 most backward districts which are being monitored with real-time data for actionable intelligence needed to improve social indicators.
"The governments have to work with non-profit organizations to deliver impact at the ground level " Kant added.
Spread in 6.09 acres of land situated on Gokul Road near the Hubballi Airport the new facility is the first of its kind in India with full-fledged facilities including a MAKERS LAB and the ESDM Cluster. It also has all amenities that are needed for a robust startup ecosystem to flourish.
"Sandbox has supported 80 ventures with sustainable scalable and resilient business models and generated Rs 70 crore for the local economy over the last 8 years " said the startup in a statement here.
About 50 patents were filed in the technology space by the startups incubated at Sandbox.
The companies are involved in image processing agri-tech Internet of Things (IoT) logistics E-commerce healthcare and service sectors.
A dedicated team of Sandbox Samvidha is supporting not-for profit ventures and high social impact startups.

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