30K Participants, 25+ Sessions: Rajasthan DigiFest 2022 Concludes On A High Note

The two-day Rajasthan Digifest 2022, which concluded on Saturday (August 20), saw participation from more than 30K attendees, including startups, government dignitaries, VCs, students and other stakeholders.

Key players from the startup industry, including Dr Velumani Arokiaswamy, founder and MD of Thyrocare; Alakh Pandey, founder and CEO of edtech unicorn PhysicsWallah; and Akhil Gupta, cofounder and CTO of NoBroker.com, spoke on a wide range of topics across 25+ sessions. 

Forty five iStart Rajasthan registered startups participated in a startup exhibition and 35 participated in the eBazaar. The fest also featured a drone expo, business quizzes, tech displays and workshops for entrepreneurs and students. 

During the closing session, Rajasthan chief minister Ashok Gehlot spoke about digital inclusion in the state, conveying the importance of IT for the masses. He also inaugurated the R-CAT building at Birla Auditorium in Jaipur. It will be a one-of-a-kind finishing school for tech graduates to help them in their employment journey through short-term and long-term courses and programmes.

The state government also felicitated 67 startups from Rajasthan and approved total funding of around INR 4.41 Cr for them under the Rajasthan Startup Policy, 2015.

A Push For Youth Employment

During the event, the Rajasthan government announced that it has selected 2,500 youths for its Rajiv Gandhi Yuva Mitra Internship programme that enables young professionals to undertake state, district and block-level government work as per their qualifications and experience.  

It was announced that the selections were made after conducting nearly 10,000 interviews. About 20% of all selected interns are from SC/ST category, while more than 300 selected interns have completed their post-graduation. 

The state government also launched the Rajiv Gandhi Yuva Mitra Program app to take its flagship internship programme online to increase its reach. 

Speaking at the closing ceremony, Akhil Arora, principal secretary and commissioner at the Department of Information Technology & Communication, Rajasthan, said that the government organised the fest to encourage startups to reach out to the enablers of the startup ecosystem and the government and help them grow. 

Some Key Highlights

The two-day event aimed to empower startups from Rajasthan with several opportunities, including exhibitions and eBazaars. The goal was to help them sell products to a wide audience and help enhance their visibility among VCs, investors and corporates.

Earlier, in a conversation with Inc42, Ashish Gupta, commissioner and joint secretary, Department of Information Technology & Communication, Rajasthan said that the focus for this year’s DigiFest was on encouraging entrepreneurship among Rajasthan’s youth. The same was reflected in a slew of job fairs and programmes held during the event. 

All in all, the fest aimed to nurture an environment of collaboration among startup enablers, young working professionals and the government in Rajasthan.