A trust to look through business proposals and district incubation centres are some of the highlights of a startup policy that the government plans to roll out by April 1.

The policy is ready to be presented in the cabinet for approval. S. Sidhartha, secretary, industries, said the policy is aimed at ushering in a friendly environment for startups.

One of the key features of the draft policy, said an industries department source, is to provide up to Rs 10 lakh seed fund (the initial capital used to start a business) to ideas with potential to be developed into successful ventures.

In January, industries minister Jai Kumar Singh had said the policy will have provisions of loans on easy instalments for startups. "The government is in the process of the creation of a venture capital fund of Rs 500 crore. This fund is just for the startups," he had said.

On January 16, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the central government intended to create a Rs 10,000-crore corpus to incubate start-ups in the country.

The state's policy includes the creation of a Bihar startup trust. It will comprise a committee of business experts and bureaucrats, which will screen and select business ideas with potential to be given seed capital. Budding entrepreneurs can directly submit ideas to the trust online or through startup cells envisioned in every district under the policy. Though the officials are not too forthcoming about the details, the trust can be headed by the chief minister or the industries secretary.

Authorities said all kinds of business ideas were welcome as long as they are innovative. If the trust feels an idea has potential but needs to be refined and guided, the proposal will be sent to the incubation centres. Then, the incubation centre will send the proposal back to the trust for final approval.

At present, there is one incubation centre at the Bihar Industries Association. Started in November last year, the centre has selected three startup enterprises for guidance and provided them office space. The businesses deal in online grocery orders, delivery of medicines and a shoe laundry service.

Abhishek Singh, the general secretary of the Bihar Entrepreneurs' Association, which has helped the industries department finalise the startup policy, told The Telegraph that another incubation centre will become operational by next month.

Singh said: "The draft policy envisages creation of startup cells in every district of Bihar. For example, a startup entrepreneur in Bhagalpur can submit his idea to the district cell, which will act on the proposal. An entrepreneur can directly approach the trust too. The policy also envisions creation of incubation centres in the districts."

These will have industry experts connected with the headquarters in Patna.

Sources in the industries department said the draft policy sets an upper revenue limit of Rs 5 crore for the startups. Once a business crosses that benchmark, it would be considered as a regular industry no longer requiring assistance of the startup policy.