In recent years, India has emerged as a hotbed for innovation and entrepreneurial fervor, with its startup ecosystem evolving at a rapid pace. Now, with an aim to bring together the country’s startups, entrepreneurs, investors, policymakers, and other stakeholders, the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Ministry of Commerce and Industry, has organised the Startup India Innovation Week 2024 from January 10, 2024 to January 18, 2024 to celebrate the Indian Startup Ecosystem and the National Startup Day (January 16, 2024).
During the Innovation Week 2024, Secretary, DPIIT, Rajesh Kumar Singh will deliver the inaugural address in the Startup Seminar: ‘Startups Unlocking Infinite Potential’ on January 11, 2024, at the Tenth Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit in Gandhinagar, Gujarat which aims to provide a global forum for business networking, knowledge sharing, and inclusive socio-economic development.
On January 16, 2024, as part of the National Startup Day celebrations, DPIIT is organising the result declaration and felicitation ceremony for the National Startup Awards 2023 and the 4th edition of the States’ Startup Ranking Framework, two of the flagship initiatives under Startup India. Physical events are also being organised across the country by incubators to celebrate the innovations being developed across districts by Indian entrepreneurs. These events include dedicated workshops for startups, mentorship sessions, stakeholder round tables, panel discussions, among others, according to a release by PIB.
Eight virtual Ask Me Anything (AMA) live sessions are planned to be conducted from 10th to 17th January 2024 with startup ecosystem enablers including incubators and accelerators, investors, mentors, unicorns, corporates, startups, academia, and government to build capacity of the ecosystem.
Further, 5 dedicated mentorship sessions focused on ‘How to Start Up’ will be conducted focused on capacity building of aspiring entrepreneurs and student entrepreneurs on topics such as understanding business structures, processes to incorporate an entity, and building a business plan.
Notably, the Startup India initiative was launched by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi on January 16, 2016 to build a strong ecosystem for nurturing innovation, boosting startups, and encouraging investments in the startup ecosystem of the country. Emphasising and promoting recognition of startups contributing towards nation building, socio economic development, and self-reliance, the Prime Minister in 2022, declared 16th January the National Startup Day.
As per the release, January 16, 2024 marks the completion of 8 marvellous years of the launch of Startup India. From about 400 startups in 2016 to more than 1,17,000 recognised startups today, the Indian startup ecosystem has grown from strength to strength over the years. The Startup India initiative is also playing an important role in realising the vision of Viksit Bharat @2047.