Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Jan 20: A grand startup festival- ‘Uday Startup Festival’ was organized by SCHEAM India and FICCI FLO in association with Model Institute of Engineering and Technology (MIET) here today.
The event was graced by Advisor to Lieutenant Governor, Rajeev Rai Bhatnagar as Chief Guest.
Addressing the gathering, Advisor Bhatnagar commended the organizers for promoting grassroot innovation and entrepreneurship in the region. He appreciated the projects showcased at the event as well as startups from MIET working in emerging domains like Performance Insight 360, Seedo.ai, People.ai, immerse.vr and Petzo, out of which Performance Insight 360 (a quality analytics SaaS platform) is at post-revenue stage and boasts 50 institutional customers across India.
The Advisor, on the occasion, also presented startup awards to four prominent tech startups with roots in J&K including Ankush Sabharwal, Founder of CoRover.ai; Amit Kachroo, Founder of AARK Global; Arvind Handoo, Founder of Visvero and Neetu Razdan, Founder of Pointerz. All these startups have a local presence in Jammu and are helping to create sustainable employment in the region.
The event was also marked by a high-powered panel discussion by distinguished luminaries of the field regarding promotion of start-ups and entrepreneurship in J&K.
The panel discussion saw participation from former head of Forest Force, Karnataka Government and Chairman, Bamboo Society of India, Punati Shridhar; Director Industries and Commerce, Jammu, Dr. Arun Kumar Manhas; Managing Director, JKTPO, Khalid Jahangir; IEDS Joint Director, Department of MSME Govt. Of India, G. Velladurai; Chairman, Jammu & Kashmir Dairy cooperative federation limited, Vikrant Dogra and MD, SCHEAM India, Nikhil Gowda.
The session was moderated by Director, MIET, Dr. Ankur Gupta.
As a run-up to the event, a startup ideation competition was organized separately for the school and college students. The winners of ideation competition were felicitated with cash prizes and certificates by Advisor Bhatnagar. Five winners from the school level including Vikrant from M.V International, Samba, Arjunveer Singh from Airforce School, Viren Jain from Heritage School, Tarushi and Himangi Sharma from Model Academy and Arman Gupta from Model Academy received cash prizes of Rs. 51,000 each as winners.
From the college level, Farheen from MIET, Khushi Gupta from Dogra Law College, Ananya Chaudhary from MIET, Shahid Ashiq Shah from Govt. Higher Secondary School Mantrigram Kashmir and Mohd. Ayaan Sofi from Boys Higher Secondary School Srinagar received cash prizes of Rs. 21,000 each and a Letter of Intent for investment into their respective ideas.
The competition received over 1800 entries from across J&K and were evaluated by a distinguished jury.
Earlier in the day, Chairperson, FICCI FLO JKL Chapter, Varuna Anand, Chairperson, FICCI FLO JKL Chapter and MD, SCHEAM India, Nikhil Gowda welcomed the chief guest and described the UDAY event as a historic milestone in startup promotion in J&K. Varuna Anand outlined the vision of UDAY and promised to make it an annual affair with broadened scope and greater impact going forward.
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