DoT to reimburse part of testing, certification costs for start-ups, MSMEs

NEW DELHI: The department of telecommunications will reimburse part of the testing and certification costs incurred by start-ups and small and micro enterprises of the telecom sector, communications minister Jyotiraditya Scindia announced at the theme launch event of India Mobile Congress on Thursday.

Under this scheme, 75% costs of start-ups, 60% costs of micro enterprises and 50% costs of small enterprises will be reimbursed by DoT. A corpus of ₹25 crore have been allocated for it, and each start-up or MSE can get up to ₹50 lakh. Applications can be made online.

“A child in its infancy needs all the support it can get. And in the start-up environment, where every cent and every paisa counts the difference between today and tomorrow, the government has committed to stand with our MSMSEs and start-ups. We will not only help them through the process of certification but also financially stand by them,” he said while announcing the scheme. Scindia also stressed on the importance of cybersecurity in today’s world where wars are also “fought in clouds”.

After the launch, Scindia said that DoT has set up a project management unit with representatives from BSNL, TCS, Tejas and C-DoT to monitor progress of 4G rollout in BSNL. He said that he and telecom secretary Neeraj Mittal monitor the progress daily