Bhubaneswar: Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik on Tuesday flagged off the month-long Start-up India-Odisha Yatra, which will go to 60 educational institutions across sixteen districts of the state to look for innovators.

"Select ideas will be put to a three-days intensive acceleration programme and the best 50 innovators will be provided with incubation and mentorship support to convert their ideas into start-ups," said Naveen. Some 500 innovative ideas are likely to come forward during the yatra.

Naveen said that in the last eight months, 175 start-ups were registered with the Start-up Odisha initiative and the government was fast moving towards the mission of setting up 1,000 start-ups by 2020.

Educational institutions in Khurda, Cuttack, Bhadrak, Balasore, Mayurbhanj, Keonjhar, Sundargarh, Jharsuguda, Sambalpur, Sonepur, Balangir, Kalahandi, Koraput, Rayagada and Ganjam districts will be covered by the yatra.

Besides, 10 boot camps will be organised during this period at Fakir Mohan University, Veer Surendra Sai University of Technology, Government Engineering College at Keonjhar, Kalinga Institute of Information Technology, National Institute of Technology, Vik-ram Dev College, Government Engineering College at Kalahandi and Biju Patnaik Film and Television Institute of Odisha in Cuttack. The winners of the boot camps will get cash prize, legal consultation, advisory services and mentorship support.

Boot camps, ideation workshops and idea-pitching sessions will be organised for the benefit of innovators and aspiring entrepreneurs.

Micro, small and medium enterprises minister Prafulla Samal said the main objective of the yatra was to create awareness about the start-up eco-system in Tier 2 and Tier 3 towns and encourage the aspiring entrepreneurs and youth to set up their ventures.