Chandigarh
31 August 2018
DIVYA AZAD
Punjab’s maiden Start-Up Summit and Awards-2018 scripted a success story in Chandigarh on Friday as 200 Startups both successful and aspiring attended the session. The Summit was organized by Punjab Chamber of Commerce and Industries, PCCI in partnership with Government of Punjab, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India and Software Technology Parks of India, STPI, here today at Hotel Lalit, Chandigarh.
Manipal Dhariwal, Chairman Start-Ups / Entrepreneurship & IT & ITeS Committee, PCCI, said “Startups are changing the ecosystem of venturing into a business. The challenge is to have belief in the business idea, sustain in the competition, being advised at the right stage, and to be mentored for the right business strategy with the availability of resources.”
Sharing the intent of setting up Punjab Chamber of Commerce and Industries, PCCI, Dalip Sharma, Secretary General, PCCI said, “Punjab Chamber of Commerce and Industries (PCCI), has been incorporated to work in close tandem with the Government of Punjab and to make concerted efforts to plug the gaps in the entrepreneurial ecosystem. The primary objective of PCCI is to advance profound institutional support in promoting and facilitating holistic development of Punjab through engaging key stakeholders.”
Vini Mahajan, Additional Chief Secretary, Industries and Commerce sharing the policies of government of Punjab said, “The state government has been working closely with the industry, academia and industry bodies to develop an ecosystem for new ventures.”
Delving into the details, she said, “Startup & Entrepreneurship is one of the key strategic pillars of Punjab Industrial and Business Development Policy which has been envisaged to develop a conducive ecosystem by addressing the challenges in Enterprise, Market, Product, Knowledge, Idea, Culture; to create the infrastructure and environment required for promoting entrepreneurial activities; to foster Industry- Academy linkages in building an entrepreneurial culture; and to create a Startup friendly environment by streamlining laws, rules and regulations”.
Present on the occasion Prof. Sarit K Das, Director, IIT Ropar said, “A system needs to be built up wherein industry experience can be leveraged to develop such academic system which could further the State initiative of developing the entrepreneurial ecosystem. IIT Ropar envisages to bring in such ecosystem in Punjab.”
Appreciating the proactive policies of the government, Deepak Bagla, CEO, India Invest, Government of India, said that the kind of supportive ecosystem available to the Start-Ups currently, should really stir up the entrepreneurial spirit of the region. Bagla was delivering the keynote address.
Insisting on developing an end to end ecosystem for Punjab in collaboration with academia, Nitin Pangotra, Director General, PCCI said, “The strategic action of PCCI viz- Build ‘Brand Punjab’ to showcase Opportunities & Achievements; Ease of Doing Business in Punjab; MSME development in the State; Entrepreneurship/Start-Up/Stand-Up, work on opportunities in sunrise sectors; and Skilling for employment, Employment for Skilled (Ghar Ghar Naukri) complements the broader goals of the government of Punjab which envisages to build a new and progressive paradigm for transforming outcomes.”
“Under the Startup Hub initiative, the state-of-the-art incubation centre set up at STPI, Mohali would cater to all the teething needs of Startups. STPI provides regulatory support to all IT export oriented units”, informed Dr. Omkar Rai, Director General, STPI.
Playmart, Jiyyo Innovations and Zevia were the noteworthy Startups which contested the Pictching.
KS Bhatia, Pumpkart and Munit Sachdeva, MuscleMantra were recognised as Ëmerging Startups”.
