Government First: Inter-departmental co-operation is key, say start-ups on Karnataka initiative

As the Government of Karnataka plans to roll out the ‘Government First’ initiative, which aims to create a pathway for startups to work directly with government departments and test their solutions with them, the startup community and the IT-BT department pin hopes on inter-departmental cooperation for the success of the programme.

Formulated under the Special Initiative of the Startup Policy 2025–30 of Karnataka, the initiative will support around 100 startups over three years, with a total outlay of ₹25 crore. Eligible startups with deployment-ready solutions can receive work orders of up to ₹25 lakh for pilot implementation and validation.

The idea, according to Priyank Kharge, Minister for Electronics, IT and Biotechnology, Government of Karnataka, is ‘to make the government a first customer and partner for promising start-ups’ and ‘to bring government and innovators together, making technology a powerful force for public good’.

Under Government First, government departments can identify operational challenges and publish problem statements for startups to respond to, or startups can proactively propose deployment-ready solutions through a Startup-Initiated Route.

The startups do not require any prior government experience. Proposals will undergo technical evaluation before selected solutions are approved for pilot deployment. Pilots will be implemented within government environments and assessed, and successful solutions shall be recommended for procurement and wider deployment.

The process will be overseen by a selection committee, technical committee, and review committee. The programme will primarily support innovations in AI, digital governance, healthcare, agriculture, education, and mobility.

Interestingly, Government First isn’t Karnataka’s first attempt to make the government a customer for startups. Over the years, the State has introduced several steps to give startups preferential access to government procurement by relaxing prior experience and turnover requirements.

“Earlier, interventions were not so direct. While there were some relaxations, startups were still supposed to follow the procurement process. Now we have done away with the procurement process itself under this initiative.

There is no tendering or KTPP involved. Instead, domain experts, user departments and the IT-Bt department will make the decisions on the selection of the startups,” explained Manjula N., Secretary to the Government, IT-Bt department.

While the startup community has welcomed the move, there are some concerns regarding the implementation given that the success of the initiative hinges on the cooperation and participation of multiple government departments.

“Getting the government as a first customer is a big validation for a lot of startups. But there has not been a dearth of policies. What we got to figure out is how to make sure that it translates into business, and how the rollout of this policy on the ground pans out,” says Madan Padaki, entrepreneur and founder of JanAI.

“The IT-BT ministry may be very proactive with startups. But the same cannot be expected from other departments. Government officials are used to working in certain ways. It is to be seen how proactive they would be in working with startups under this initiative,” said a startup founder who didn’t want to be named.

The budgetary constraints of various departments is another challenge. Ms Manjula acknowledged these concerns, agreeing that not all departments may be equally open-minded and that some could potentially view startups in the same bracket as conventional contractors.

“That is why we are going to fund this. The IT department will take responsibility for spending that money and evaluating the solutions. A user department doesn’t have to spend any money on this from the department funds.

All they need to do is facilitate and help the startup to roll out that solution. It is a free solution for the departments,” Ms. Manjula says. Agreeing that the initiative could face challenges in navigating established ways of working within government, she hopes it will find traction among a few open-minded departments to start with.

“We will introduce a quarterly monitoring mechanism and other such guidelines to monitor and give it a push if there are any hurdles. We will also make the necessary tweaks that may be required,” she says.