Prime Minister Modi to address India-US Startup Konnect

Over 30 start-ups across diverse sectors to demonstrate their innovations

As Prime Minister Narendra Modi starts his seven-day US tour starting from the 23rd this month, he is scheduled to participate in a number of events, which are meant to showcase India’s focus on building a robust start-up ecosystem. As part of the visit, he will also address the India-US Startup Konnect, which will take place on September 27, in the Silicon Valley.

India-US Startup Konnect is organised by India’s IT industry body Nasscom along with The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE) Silicon Valley and IIM-Ahmedabad’s Centre for Innovation Incubation and Entrepreneurship (CIIE).

Over 30 start-ups across diverse sectors such as agriculture, health care, energy, financial inclusion, and biotechnology, as well as leading technology business incubators from India would be part of this programme. These start-ups will  exhibit their products and achievements to investors and potential partners in the Valley.

“These start-ups are representative of the changing India. These innovators are leveraging technology and their experiences to create massive impact by solving some tougher problems,” said Kunal Upadhyay, CEO, CIIE.

Besides, Nasscom would also sign a MoU with TiE Silicon Valley to facilitate a start-up exchange and collaboration programme at the event while IIM-A’s CIIE would forge tie-ups with corporates and academic institutions in the US seeking collaboration.

“With India-US Start-up Konnect, We also aim to further accelerate the strong interface that exists between India and US start-up ecosystem,” said R Chandrashekhar, president, Nasscom.

The prime minister’s engagement with the technology ecosystem in the Silicon Valley assumed significance in the backdrop of the government’s recent campaign ‘start up India, stand up India’.

He is also expected to meet the leaders of a number of technology companies in the Valley including Facebook, Apple and Google.