Bhubaneshwar : The two day and first ever Startup Mela 2023, organised by Startup Odisha ended today. The proceedings of the day included a panel discussion with officials from the Government of Odisha including Shri. Manoj Kumar Mishra, IAS, Principal Secretary, Electronics and IT Department, Government of Odisha, Shri. Bibhuti Bhusan Das, IOFS Special Secretary, MSME, Government of Odisha, Shri. Pradeep Kumar Mishra, Member Secretary cum Special Secretary, OSHEC, Government of Odisha and Dr. Omkar Rai, Executive Chairman, Startup Odisha, Government of Odisha. The session was moderated by Shri. Sidharth Rath, Founder and CEO, Swasthyaplus.
“Change of process is vital to disruption. In all our policies, we are enabling substantial investment in training and education thus making students far more employable. With emerging technology rapidly changing, the Government is consistently working on bringing in large companies to adopt colleges and institutions that cater to modules like AI, ML, Blockchain, Cloud and Data Analytics. Our aim is that in the next two to three years, all government colleges and possibly schools will be taught the basics of AI to begin with.” Shri. Manoj Kumar Mishra said.
“The new Startup Policy which will be announced soon would be a best-in-class, inclusive and futuristic one, where nobody will be left out. The new policy would be a collective reflection of all the policies of the other departments in the State. Through this policy, we aim to add at least 100 incubators in the next five years, achieve at least 5000 startups by 2025 and emerge as the top three startup hubs in the country.” Shri Bibhuti Bhusan Das said.
“We have started making a plan at the macroscale to create an environment in higher educational and technical institutions to create innovation labs interfaced with industry in both scientific and social fields.” Shri. Pradeep Kumar Mishra said.
Dr. Omkar Rai, in his address said, “The Government of Odisha has appointed world class architects to redesign and transform O-Hub over the next one year, to make it a vibrant and world-class campus to nurture the startup ecosystem in the state. Startup Odisha will continue to play a key role and evolve to meet the requirements of startups of the state. Our new startup policy will be a dynamic and futuristic policy that has been drawn up in cognizance with all line departments. We are working on a mechanism by which, periodically the leadership of the investor ecosystem visits the state and startups are given an opportunity to pitch to them. Additionally, the Preferential procurement policy among line departments is in the making where relevant products from startups will be consumed by the government.”
The day also witnessed a session by industry leaders including Smt. Priyanka Mohanty, Director, Falcon Marine Exports Ltd., Shri. Samarendra Mishra, Co-Founder, OVO Farm and Shri. Arbind Sahoo, Director, Ruchi Foodline. They advised entrepreneurs and students to constantly look out for opportunities, think out of the box of how to add value to the product, adapt to the market, be in sync with the target audience, make their startups fundamentally strong and not chase valuation. They said that youngsters are at a great opportunity today as the time has arrived for Odisha.
Delivering the keynote address of the valedictory session, Shri. Asit Tripati, Principal Advisor to Chief Minister and Chairman of Western Odisha Development Council said, “The Government of Odisha’s resolve is to provide the best policy, best reforms, and best incubation space in the country. India is the place to be in if you want to do business as there is a great deal of opportunity for entrepreneurs in the country today. It is encouraging to know that more than 25 colleges have sent their best minds to attend this event, which shows their intent towards promoting the entrepreneurial spirit. While the government will do it best to promote and support startups, it is up to young minds to take up entrepreneurship and pitch strong and workable ideas for support.”
Giving practical tips to the student and entrepreneur community at the valedictory session, Shri. Saswat Mishra, Principal Secretary, MSME, Government of Odisha said, “It is a known fact that more than 90% startups fail. There is no harm if you fail but it is important to learn from mistakes. Exit early if you think your startup idea is not working, or else you will have nothing else to fall back on. A startup should aim at exiting the incubators within two and a half years at most. The Government is doing its bit in terms of policy and incentives and is looking for entrepreneurial spirit from youngsters.”
At the valedictory session, several awardees were felicitated, including 7 incubators including FTBI, NIT Rourkela, KIIT TBI, SSU Incubation Foundation, AIC STPINEXT, AIC CVRCE, AIC NITF, and DBT-ILS for getting selected under Startup India seed fund scheme. Brand ambassadors for 17 colleges were also felicitated. Other awardees included:
Student Exhibitor Winners:
1st WEWER from ITER COLLEGE
2nd METALABS FROM VSSUT
3rd FEMVIRA FROM NIST COLLEGE
Quizzards Winners
1st – Rahul & Arpit from VSSUT
2nd – Ayesha & Debesh from BIITM
3rd – Rohit & Ankit from Silicon Institute
Group Discussion winners
1st – Team Sharks
2nd – Team Phoenix
3rd – Team Doglapan
Best Startup Exhibitor
IG Drones
Innominds – Hackathon Winners
1st – Ayush from Nist Berhampur
2nd – Soumya Mishra from IGIT SARANG
3rd – Monika from Birla Global University
As part of Startup Mela 2023, a total of 38 startups exhibited their innovations at a parallel exhibition.
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