Start-up India launch by PM Modi on 16 Jan

YourStory is proud to partner with the Government of India's 'Start-up India' movement, to be launched on 16 January 2016 in New Delhi. 

The event is aimed at celebrating the entrepreneurship spirit of country’s youth and will be attended by CEOs and founders of top startups (over 1500) from across the country. The closing session will be addressed by the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, who will formally launch the initiative and unveil the startup Action Plan.

Union Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs Arun Jaitley will inaugurate the event in Vigyan Bhawan at 9.30 am on 16^th January 2016 where the minister of State for Commerce and Industry, Nirmala Sitharaman, will be the Guest of Honour.

The event shall be a non-stop day-long global workshop on startup entrepreneurship and will include panel discussions on topics such as

• Unleashing Entrepreneurship and Innovation: What do Indian Startups Need to Grow and Prosper
• Celebrating Women: Stories of Innovative Women Entrepreneurs
• How digitization will change India’s future
• Making Indian Healthcare Leapfrog
• Financial inclusion is within reach

The panel discussion on “Show Me the Money: How do we Capitalize Entrepreneurship?” will be chaired by Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha. A unique Question and Answer (Q&A) session titled “Face-to-face with Policy makers” is also being organized wherein Secretaries of key government ministries and departments will answer questions on how government will be creating an enabling ecosystem for startups.

The objective is to reinforce commitment of the government towards creating an ecosystem that is conducive for growth of startups. The panel will comprise of Secretaries from Department of Revenue, Department of Human Resources and Development, Department of Corporate Affairs, Department of Financial Services, Department of Economic Affairs, Department of Science and Technology, Department of Biotechnology, Department of Electronics and Information Technology, Department of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises and Department of Skill Development. Additionally, the panel will have representation from Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI).

The event shall also feature interactive talks with global leaders and venture capitalists such as Masayoshi Son (Founder and CEO, SoftBank), Travis Kalanick (Founder, Uber) and Adam Nuemann (Founder, WeWork). A delegation of over 40 top CEOs and founders of startups, Venture Capitalists and Angels investors from Silicon Valley will be attending as special guests for the event and will be taking part in interactive Q&A sessions.

Google will be conducting an innovative session titled “Launchpad Accelerator” which will involve live pitches being made by early stage startups to potential investors. Nikesh Arora, President & Chief Operating Officer, SoftBank will be interacting with participants on aspects relating to startup funding. A virtual exhibition is also being organized as part of the event to showcase some of the unique and innovative work done by Start-ups in the country.

As Prime Minister Narendra Modi had indicated as part of his last “Mann ki baat” radio programme, a full action plan of startup India will be launched as part of the event. The plan shall highlight initiatives and schemes being undertaken by the Government to address various aspects relating to developing a conducive startup ecosystem in the country.

Considering the importance of this event towards promotion of startup culture in the country, the event will be telecast live in IITs, IIMs, NITs, IIITs and Central Universities and to youth groups in over 350 districts of India.

Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP) is organizing this event along with Invest India and startup ecosystem players iSpirt, YourStory, NASSCOM, SheThePeople.tv and Kairos Society and youth wings of FICCI and CII.