As a part of Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav, a week-long event, "Celebrating Innovation Ecosystem", to be hosted by Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), is proposed to be held in January 2022. Secretary, DPIIT Shri Anurag Jain reviewed the project in a high-level meeting. The event will mark the 6th anniversary of the launch of the Startup India initiative. 

The key objectives of the Innovation Week will be to bring together the country’s key Startups, entrepreneurs, investors, policy makers and other national/ international stakeholders for a specially curated event on innovation and entrepreneurship and to exchange knowledge on best practices on nurturing Startup ecosystems. 

The initiative aspires to encourage and inspire the youth for innovation and entrepreneurship and develop capacities of entrepreneurial ecosystem. Innovation week would help provide market access opportunities to Startups and aid and abet the mobilization of global and domestic capital for investments into Startups. The event is also set to showcase high-quality, high technology and frugal innovations from India. 

Apart from deliberating on good practices from best of the ecosystems across the world, the sessions will be designed to showcase the spread and depth of entrepreneurship based on innovation in India 

The proposed week-long event will comprise of activities organised with specific themes. The tentative themes are International Engagements, market access and incubation support, funding support to Start-ups etc and will cover the different areas of the innovation lifecycle. 

The week-long event will be attended by Startups, Incubators, Accelerators, Mentors, Venture Capital (VC) Funds, Investors, Government e-Market place (GeM), Corporates, Students, Entrepreneurs, Ecosystem enablers, Government Officials etc. 

The event will feature a dedicated exhibition area for select Startups (including DPIIT-recognised Startups, National Startup Awards Finalists, Startups supported by Fund of Funds for Startups, beneficiary Startups of Government of India Ministries/ States).  Mentoring and incubation support at the event will also be provided in collaboration with partnering agencies such as AIM NITI Aayog, DST, DBT, MeitY, DPIIT, Invest India and more. 

Multiple pitching sessions will be organised for Startups (NSA Finalists and select Startups from the Startup India Showcase) across various sectors and stages, providing them an opportunity to present their innovations to some of the key investors and corporates. 

As part of the innovation week, various sessions are proposed to enable further international engagement and market access. Presentations will be made to highlight best practices undertaken by international ecosystems to globalize their Startup landscapes. Additionally, workshops with leaders within the investment and acceleration ecosystems will feature discussions on their global journeys, key learnings and insights on the international market. A fireside chat will also be held highlighting strategies and methods to enter the global market. 

Corporates would be invited to set innovation labs at the exhibition area. It is proposed to have working-models of a few technologies displayed for attendees to experience the same. Areas/sessions will be allocated for attendees to experience innovative technologies like augmented reality, virtual reality, 3D printing, drones, artificial intelligence etc. 

Various sessions such as workshops, presentations, pitching and reverse pitching, panel discussion, fireside chat, experience sharing etc will be organized. These events will be based on the identified themes and will be conducted by one or more marquee speakers. The sessions will be conducted in virtual and/or physical mode and will be livestreamed through Startup India social media handles. 

The corporate connect program will be held with an aim to provide an opportunity to the Startups to work with 5 leading corporates on providing innovative solutions to the specific problem statements. A panel comprising of high-level domain experts, incubator, and investor network etc will shortlist the most promising set of Startups through a robust process. 

A regulatory roundtable will also be conducted under the chairmanship of Hon’ble Minister of Commerce and Industry, inviting key officials from various Ministries & Government Departments, funds, other regulators and ecosystem players to discuss important regulatory issues which are extremely critical for the Startup ecosystem.

**********

PK/MS