Startup Mahakumbh: A Celebration Of Innovation & Entrepreneurship To Make A ‘Viksit Bharat’

Industry body ASSOCHAM, in collaboration with Nasscom, Bootstrap Incubation & Advisory Foundation, TiE, and Indian Venture and Alternate Capital Association (IVCA), hosted Startup Mahakumbh from March 18-20 in New Delhi’s Bharat Mandapam to foster entrepreneurial spirit in the country and bring together all the players in the startup ecosystem. The event was presented by GeM (Government eMarketplace).

With the central theme ‘Bharat Innovates’, the event showcased innovations from the nooks and crannies of Bharat – made in India for the world. It fostered a spirit of creativity and ingenuity within the country while embracing a global perspective. 

The three-day event was attended by 1.3K+ exhibitors from 26+ states, 14+ country delegations, and 48.5K+ business visitors. It also hosted 10+ thematic pavilions, which served as a catalyst for the startup ecosystem.

The event also aligned with the Indian government’s ‘Viksit Bharat’ roadmap to make India a developed country by 2047. The inaugural panel discussion on the role of startups in realising the vision of Viksit Bharat featured EasyMyTrip’s Rikant Pittie, Nasscom’s Debjani Ghosh, Anil Kumar Sagar from the Uttar Pradesh government’s department of IT, and Peak XV Partners’ Ranjan Anandan as panellists. It was moderated by Arvind Gupta from the Digital India Foundation. 

During the discussion, Pittie said, “There will be a remarkable change in how we plan and book travel. For instance, we would be able to find recommendations via leisure mode on our phones easily. Today, there are 1.5K traveltech startups under the DPIIT. More will join the league in the coming time. Currently, India is the 22nd biggest travel destination. To progress towards Viksit Bharat, we must bring our country under the top 10.”

The highlight of the event was an address by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the third day. Modi said that India is the third-largest startup ecosystem in the world and is home to 1.25 Lakh startups. These startups, he said, provide employment to nearly 12 Lakh people.

About the event, the prime minister said, “It is ‘Mahakumbh’ in the truest sense with the entire startup ecosystem coming together. The event has brought together current as well as aspiring entrepreneurs. The startup exhibition seems to be that of unicorns and decacorns of tomorrow. India has emerged as the new hope for global startup space.”

Discussions, Collaborations & New Launches 

The event covered the entire spectrum of the startup ecosystem, touching upon topics such as empowering startups for a thriving tomorrow, the role of regulatory sandboxes in fintech, and the mistakes and learnings of founders during the first round of fundraising. 

In a fireside chat with Accel’s Prashanth Prakash on the topic ‘Navigating Success And Failures: Insights From Building Startups’, BookMyShow’s Ashish Hemrajani advised founders to learn from cockroach startups. 

“Startup founders are in the business of creating value for society. You must look at India’s growth story and not try to replicate from other developed nations. Don’t look at unicorns but at cockroaches. We had zero revenue during the two years of the pandemic, but we went on cloud and revamped BookMyShow. We took to live events, media and advertising. The rest is history,” Hemrajani said.

The closing keynote address on the second day was delivered by Palak Kaur Bhatia, associate senior vice president of Startup India, on the topic, ‘From Adversity To Advantage: Cultivating Resilience On The Entrepreneurial Journey’. 

Commerce and industry minister Piyush Goyal, DPIIT secretary Rajesh Kumar Singh, former NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant, Kris Gopalakrishnan from Axilor Ventures and Infosys Science Foundation, Ajit Chavan from GeM, Sandeep Aggarwal from Droom and Nitya Sharma from Simpl were among the other prominent speakers over the three days. 

The 10+ thematic pavilions hosted startup exhibitions, showcasing innovative offerings by disruptive startups.

 JetSynthesys CEO Rajan Navani launched the GEPL (Global eCricket Premier League), which the gaming startup claims to be the first-ever franchise-based ecricket league in India. 

Other noteworthy startups that showcased their offerings included Noccarc, Dhruva Space, ShramIn Jobs, Enkrypt AI, Portkey.ai, AdagioVR, and Chargeup.

Speaking to Inc42, Archana Jahagirdar from Rukam Capital (the Investor Gold partner for the event) said, “Each sector has its own challenges and ideation and highlighting it was the objective of thematic pavilions. It has helped everyone focus on different areas of strengths India has and emerging sectors.”

Hemrajani said that entrepreneurship is more structured in the country now. With financial inclusion and digital connectivity, every person has an opportunity to become an entrepreneur from sectors ranging from space and medical science to agriculture, he added.

Highlighting the importance of the event, Aggarwal said, “Startup India is changing the face of modern India. It is amazing to see so many young people. Almost everyone is carrying an entrepreneurial idea. Current entrepreneurs are sharing their knowledge with aspiring ones. Startup Mahakumbh has brought such a large and diverse contingent under one roof at such a crucial time when our country is the third-largest startup ecosystem in the world.” 

The groundbreaking initiative united stakeholders from all parts of the ecosystem. With insightful masterclasses, fireside conversations, and panel discussions from industry veterans, aspiring and current entrepreneurs took away a wealth of knowledge from the event.