Startup Mahakumbh aims to improve India’s ranking in innovation

Startup Mahakumbh is poised to be an annual event and is spread across three days

March 18, 2024

This year’s event covers ten areas of focus, spanning everything from artificial intelligence to gaming

Younger and smaller startups can benefit from improved access to crucial stakeholders like mentors and investors

Stakeholders believe that private sector companies must become more involved with investing into startups and nurturing them

The Startup Mahakumbh has doyens of the industry as speakers and is targeted at startups across growth stages

The Indian Government’s Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) organised the Startup Mahakumbh with an aim of improving India’s global ranking for innovation from 40 where it currently stands.

Poised to evolve into an annual event, this year’s Startup Mahakumbh is spread across three days and has ten distinct focus areas which are:

  • Agritech
  • Software-as-a-service and Artificial Intelligence (AI)
  • Manufacturing and business-to-business
  • Climate tech
  • Pharmaceuticals and biotech
  • Deep tech
  • Direct-to-consumer
  • E-sports and gaming
  • Incubators and accelerators
  • Fintech

Each of these focus areas has a dedicated pavilion, and all of them have employed AI to demonstrate how it can contribute towards achieving accelerated growth in each of these realms.

More than forty unicorn startups are expected to participate, and includes companies like Nykaa, Lenskart, Boat, Oyo, Razorpay and Dream11 which are valued at over USD $ 1 billion.  At the Startup Mahakumbh, younger and smaller startups can benefit from improved access to crucial stakeholders like mentors and investors, while the investors of the more mature ones can garner insight on how to spot and act on opportunities to exit the business.

Stakeholders believe that private sector companies must become more involved with investing into startups and nurturing them, but without having the sole motive to own them. The Startup Mahakumbh had a significant level of participation from such large corporate companies and there is much expectation for this trend to grow in the years to come.

Government-driven events and initiatives like the Startup Mahakumbh are successfully driving innovation, growing talent and creating conducive ecosystems for the development of technology and growing businesses in India.

Source: Economic Times

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