Bhubaneswar: ‘Startup Samvaad’, an initiative of ‘a-Idea, was organized by X-Seed-the Entrepreneurial Cell of XMIB-XUB, here on Saturday.
‘ a-Idea'(Association for Innovation Development of Entrepreneurship in Agriculture) is the Technology Business Incubator(TBI) of ICAR-NAARM in partnership with XIMB and XUB.
‘Startup Samvaad’ facilitated the congregation of scholars and practitioners, experts in their domain, to deliberate and contributed towards the importance of entrepreneurship.
In the morning session, 4 Agri-Tech entrepreneurs pitched their ideas in front of the esteemed judges. These entrepreneurs were shortlisted from 10 entrepreneurial ideas from throughout India. The judges were Dr. Kamal Kishore Sharma (Co-Founder, Mentor at Startups), Vijay Nadiminti (COO, a-IDEA, NAARM) and XIMB economics professor Biswa Swarup Mishra. The ideas of the entrepreneurs were closely analyzed and they were provided with useful suggestions and recommendations.
In the afternoon session,Dr. Kamal Kishore Sharma delivered a keynote session on the theme ‘Indian Startup Ecosystem: Drivers & Challenges’, followed by Sunil Kumar Gupta (Executive VP & Team Lead East-Corporate Agribusiness Product Sales, YES Bank) who spoke on ‘Impact of Financial Literacy in Indian Agriculture’. The final keynote session was by Rajen Padhi (Director General, Utkal Chamber of Commerce & Industry ) on the theme, ‘Can India leverage Agri-Export for doubling farmers’ income’.
The event concluded with a panel discussion on the theme, ‘Converging impacts of Agri-startups on farmers’ status in India’. The panelists were Lt. Col. Ashit Mahapatra (MD & CEO, Agri Link), Barada Prasad Panigrahy (Entrepreneurship Development, Wadhwani Foundation) and Vijay Nadiminti(COO, a-IDEA, NAARM). The session was moderated by Prof. Biswa Swarup Mishra.
