Why the government funds accelerators rather than startups

An incubator takes an idea and helps it become a company - space, mentoring, early validation, usually over a long and open-ended period. An accelerator takes an existing company with a working product and compresses its growth into a fixed cohort of a few months, ending in demo days and investor introductions. SAMRIDH deliberately chose the second model and the indirect route: the money goes to accelerators, who select and support startups, with the government adding matching funds to what a startup raises. The logic is leverage and selection - accelerators already have the sectoral judgement and investor networks a ministry does not, and requiring matching funding means private capital, not officials, decides which company is worth backing. The trade-off is that outcomes depend entirely on the quality of the accelerators chosen.