The Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) will set up 12 centres of excellence across the country to build products and solutions in areas such as healthtech, IOT and SmartAgri as it looks to nurture small companies and startups to work on these solutions.

“These CoEs will play a pivotal role in revving up R&D, innovation, IP creation, and product development, making India a product nation in times to come.” Stated Omkar Rai, director general of STPI. These centres will be started in cities such as Bengaluru, Gandhinagar, Patna, Bhubaneshwar, Gangtok and Itanagar.

The tech promotion body already has over 13 CoEs across the country.

For nurturing the startup ecosystem and creating world-class software products by Indian startups, STPI has embarked on the journey of establishing domain-centric centres of excellence in various emerging technology areas, it said in a statement.

“Reimagination, recreation, restoring, and repositioning are in the DNA of STPI. We are constantly evolving apropos the dynamic needs of the Indian IT industry. We have also infused inclusiveness and competition in the work culture of the organisation,” Rai said.

STPI started its journey from three centres. It now has 60 centres across the country, and 52 of them are in Tier II and tier III cities.

The $194-billion IT industry, comprising more than 18,000 firms that directly employ 4.47 million people, accounts for 8% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP).