Two-day ‘national startup festival’ concludes in Jammu

Jammu, Feb 23 (PTI) Nearly 2000 visitors thronged the two-day ‘national startup festival’ which concluded on Sunday, showcasing remarkable success stories in startup promotion, innovation and entrepreneurial growth across Jammu and Kashmir, an official said.

The festival, which was inaugurated on Saturday by Union Minister Jitendra Singh at government women college, Gandhi Nagar here, saw a total of 45 startups participating from all over the country.

The mega event attracted a huge crowd of students from various degree colleges and schools of Jammu region and provided a platform to entrepreneurs, investors, industry leaders, scientists, researchers, bio-incubators, manufacturers and members of civil society.

Director of CSIR-IIIM, Jammu Zabeer Ahmed who is spearheading the institute’s resolute to nurture the startup ecosystem in the region, said besides the institute’s forte in the pre-clinical drug discovery, IIIM has equally galvanised agri-entrepreneurship and set up two incubators for incubation support to the startup.

To set up a new incubator at Industrial Biotech Park in Kathua, the Grant-in-aid Letter Agreement (GLA) was also signed between CSIR-IIIM and BIRAC on the opening day of the festival, he said.

A spokesperson of the CSIR-IIIM said while over 900 students actively participated in the event on day one, more than 800 students visited the festival on Sunday.