MeitY and Meta team up to foster 40 Indian businesses in virtual reality

The grand challenge will narrow down 80 innovators and choose 16 for additional funding that will help the country's XR technology ecosystem advance.

40 early-stage startups in India will receive grants of Rs 20 lakh each as a part of a programme launched on Tuesday by the MeitY Startup Hub (MSH) of the IT Ministry and Meta (earlier Facebook). This programme will assist these startups in developing products and solutions based on Extended Reality (XR) technologies.

Mixed reality, virtual reality, and augmented reality all go under thr umbrella term 'XR'. A grand challenge and an accelerator are both components of the "XR Startup Programme," which aims to strengthen the nation's emerging tech ecosystem and promote innovation across a range of industries, including healthcare, education, and learning.

Rajeev Chandrashekar, Minister of State for Electronics and IT, remarked that immersive technologies, like XR, have the potential to revolutionise the digital environment and can significantly help the nation economically.

In keeping with the government's goal of making India a trillion-dollar economy by 2025, the minister said," I look forward to the collaboration with Meta and I hope it offers the required momentum towards supporting the rise of investments in future technologies."

The grand challenge will narrow down 80 innovators and choose 16 for additional funding that will help the country's XR technology ecosystem advance. According to Joel Kaplan, vice president of global policy at Meta, India will be crucial in shaping future technologies.

Kaplan said that, "decisions and investments made here in India now drive worldwide discussions on how technology may bring more economic opportunity and better outcomes for people."

The ecosystem for augmented reality(AR) and virtual reality(VR) in the nation will be shaped in part by this endeavour. The Analysis Group recently conducted a research that predicts the metaverse will increase India's GDP by 240 billion dollars or 4.6% by 2031.

The future of technology and the internet for India and the rest of the world will be shaped by young Indian companies, particularly those from tier 2 and tier 3 towns, according to Chandrashekhar.

A total of 16 innovators will receive funding of Rs 20 lakh each and additional support to help them construct Minimum Viable Products (MVPs) or prototypes after 80 innovators are initially picked to attend a bootcamp.

According to Ajit Mohan, vice president and managing director of Facebook India(Meta), all stakeholders, including developers, businesses, creators, policymakers, and entrepreneurs, must actively participate for the future to be equal.

The 50 million dollars XR Programs and Research Fund of Meta provides funding for the MeitY programme over a two-year period.