‘Start-up India’ to be Launched on 16 January 2016

The ‘Start-up India’ movement would be launched by the Government of India on 16th January 2016 in New Delhi. The aim of the event is to celebrate the entrepreneurship spirit of the country’s youth and would be attended by the CEOs of the top start-ups of the nation. The closing session of the event would have the Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi address the gathering and formally launch the initiative as well as unveil the Start-up Action Plan.

The event would be inaugurated in Vigyan Bhavan at 9.30 am on 16th January by the Union Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs Arun Jaitley and the Guest of Honour would be the minister of state for Commerce and Industry, Nirmala Sitharaman.

The event would be a non-stop day long global workshop on start-up entrepreneurship and there would be panel discussions on varied topics such as unleashing entrepreneurship and innovation: what do Indian start-ups need to grow and prosper, celebrating women: stories of innovative women entrepreneurs, how digitization would change India’s future, making Indian healthcare leapfrog and financial is within reach.

There would be a panel discussion on “Show Me the Money: How do we Capitalize Entrepreneurship?” that would be chaired by Minister of State for Finance Jayant Sinha. There would also be a unique Question and Answer (Q&A) session titled “Face to Face with Policy Makers” wherein the Secretaries of key government ministries and departments would be required to answer question as to how they would be creating a conducive ecosystem for the start-ups.

The primary agenda of the session is to reinforce the commitment of the government towards creating a conducive ecosystem for healthy growth of the start-ups. The panel would have 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. In addition to these there would be a representation from Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI) and Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI).

There would also be interactive talks with global leaders and venture capitalists such as Adam Nuemann (Founder, WeWork), Masayoshi Son (Founder &CEO, SoftBank) and Travis Kalanick (Founder, Uber). The event would be attended by a delegation of 40 top CEOs and founders of start-ups, Venture Capitalists and Angels Investors from Silicon Valley who would also take part in the Q&A session.

An innovative session titled “Launchpad Accelerator” would be conducted by Google that will involve live pitches being made by the early stage start-ups to the potential investors. President & Chief Operating Officer, SoftBank Nikesh Arora would interact with the participants on aspects regarding start-up funding. There would also be a virtual exhibition showcasing the wonderful work done by the start-ups in the country.

In his last “Mann ki baat” radio programme the Prime Minister had stated that a full action plan of start-up India would be unveiled during the event. The initiative and schemes that are being undertaken by the Government to address various aspects concerning providing a conducive ecosystem for start-ups would be highlighted in the plan.

As the event is very much important for the promotion of start-up culture in India therefore it would be telecast live in IITs, IIMs, NITs, IIITs and Central Universities and also youth groups in over 350 districts of India.