India Start-up Week by Indian Chamber of Commerce commences from October 4-9, 2021

 Kolkata: Indian Chamber of commerce (ICC), to flag-off its initiative India Startup Week, a weeklong interactive session for investors, State Government and startups from 4th October 2021. The platform aims to help the budding entrepreneurs to hone their start-up business knowledge and learn from the experienced industry stalwarts. India Startup Week is a platform for visualizers and budding leaders who have the idea and passion to bring change through innovation. The start-ups across sectors like Finance, Education, Agriculture, Healthcare, Defence, Real estate and EVs can explore this opportunity to build their dream.

India Startup Week is likely to see a virtual footfall of about 200 organizations which would be a mix of startups, investors, angel investors, budding entrepreneurs and the like. Presence of eminent people like Mr. Ajit Singh Pal, IT Minister, Govt. of Uttar Pradesh, Mr. Ashish Chauhan, MD & CEO, BSE will witness a heavy inaugural session. Special address by Mr. Deepak Bagla, MD & CEO, Invest India and Capt. Dibya Shankar Mishra, Minister of MSME, Industries, Home & Energy, Govt of Odisha will add sharp views to the first day of the event. The. Guest of Honor Shri K. Lakshminarayanan, IT Minister, UT of Puducherry will also add a different dimension to India Startup Week.

Mr. Vikash Agarwal, President, Indian Chamber of Commerce said, “With the right use of technology, we hope to see innovative minds coming forward. The objective of Indian Chamber of Commerce is to create the right platform for these young minds, so that ideas get a better shape and a proper channel to prosper.” Views of Dr. Subhrangshu Sanyal, CEO, IIM Kolkata Incubation Center and Ms. Aastha Grover, Head – Startup, Invest India are likely to throw light on the government support provided to startups. A panel discussion chaired by Mr. Abhishek Rungta, Co-chairperson, ICC Nexxt and attended by startup stalwarts like Ms. Ananya Chandra, Managing Partner – Innopact VC, Singapore, Dr. Apoorva Ranjan Sharma, Co-founder Venture Catalyst & 9 Unicorns, Mr. Simon Galpin, former MD-Bahrain Economic Development Board, Mr. William Bao Bean, General Partner, SOSV and Mr. Ashok Panjikaran, Head – Incubation of Kerala Startup Mission will deliberate on the topic Managing Global startup Economy.

Mr. Parthiv Neotia, Chairperson, ICC Nexxt said, “In spite of a high growth rate of Start-ups in India, we find many of them failing due to lack of guidance and support. India Start-up Week is designed to facilitate the Start-ups with the right resources and handhold them towards success in their entrepreneurial journey.”

While the highlight of Day 2 of the event is a panel discussion on Banks on Startups in the presence of speakers from all reputed banks, sessions by. Govt of Odisha and Uttar Pradesh will showcase the start-up friendly policies in these states. Innovation Sandbox by Mr. Avneesh Pandey, CGM, SEBI and Ideation to IPO – the start-up’s journey by Mr. Ajay Thakur, Head SME & start-ups, BSE are other two sessions for exchange of thoughts on this platform.

The third day will witness an interesting panel discussion on why is India the Land of Unicorns, to be chaired by Mr. Abhishek Rungta and attended by Dr. Shreeram Iyer, Senior VP, T-Hub, Govt of Telangana, Mr.Karthik Prabhakar, Partner, Chiratae Ventures, Mr. G.R. Arun Kumar, Group CFO, Ola. Another heavyweight panel discussion on the same day on Edtech – role of Academia in Entrepreneurship Building & Startup Ecosystem will be chaired by Mr. Vikrant Varshney, Partner SucSEED VC and attended by Mr. Tamal Mukherjee, Founder and Director, Little Laureates, Mr. Rounaque Mustafa, CEO IIML Enterprise Incubation. Center, Mr. Tarun Chaturvedi, Senior VP, HR & Consulting Foundation for Innovation & Research in Science & Technology and Mr. Abhishek Gupta, Times Internet.

Masterclass sessions will be conducted by industry captains like Mr. Sanjay Mehta, Founder & Partner, 100X.VC and Mr. Shubhradeep Guha, Director-Media Services, Google India. Some of the other panel discussions lined up for the event are on Deep Tech- Intelligent Automation, Health Tech – Made in India for the World, Agri Tech – Start-ups driving growth in traditional sectors and Indian Start-ups raised 10Bn in H1: What Next? Foreign countries who are also participant in India Start-up Week are Nigeria, Russia and South Africa. The unique highlight of this platform is that the registered start-ups will also get an opportunity to pitch to the investors.