Delhi education minister announces Rs 325-crore corpus to support student-led startups

NEW DELHI: Delhi Education Minister Ashish Sood on Friday announced a Rs 325-crore budget allocation over the next five years to support 5,000 startups under a new 'campus-to-market' incubation policy, according to an official statement.

Speaking at an interaction with the top-100 student startups during the Delhi Startup Yuva Festival 2026, Sood said the initiative aims to provide end-to-end support to student startups, from intellectual property protection and fair valuation to funding access and market linkages.

The session, organised by the Department of Training and Technical Education, was held at Indira Gandhi Delhi Technical University for Women, Kashmere Gate.

"The government is working on a comprehensive policy to connect innovative ideas with real markets, investors and financial institutions," Sood said.

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Sood said nearly 1,000 startups participated in the festival, 700 made detailed presentations and 100 were shortlisted. "There is a need to build a strong startup culture so that young people become job creators rather than job seekers," the minister added.

Referring to the earlier announced Business Blasters initiative, the minister said Rs 20,000 each was provided to 5,000 teams across 1,000 schools, with around Rs 10 crore allocated this year.

He said in the past, multiple institutions were working on similar startup projects, leading to duplication of efforts, wastage of resources and loss of valuable student energy. "The new policy will promote coordinated and streamlined innovative efforts," Sood asserted.