Minister of Commerce and Industry, Consumer Affairs, Piyush Goyal called upon stakeholders in the innovation ecosystem to strive to take India to the top 25 in the Global Innovation Index. “Our startups are the key reason behind India’s meteoric rise in Global Innovation Index from 76 in 2014 to 46 in 2021”, he said while inaugurating ṭhe “Startup India Innovation Week Launch” virtually from New Delhi.
Expressing his delight at being able to participate in the first ever Startup Innovation launch week, Goyal said that ‘Celebrating Innovation Ecosystem’, as a part of Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav, was also a call to action for all of us to strengthen our startup ecosystem further.
The Minister spoke of the need for institutionalizing the Startup Week Celebrations as an annual event so that we keep reviewing, reinventiing, rejuvenating and reenergizing our startup ecosystem. He said that there is a need for developing a futuristic outlook to pave the roadmap of the future while we celebrate our entrepreneurs.
This virtual week-long innovation celebration aims to commemorate the 75th year of India’s independence ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav’ and is designed to showcase the spread and depth of entrepreneurship across India.
The Minister emphasized that the event has been organized with the whole Government approach and in collaboration of 30 Departments. He also announced that the Participant registration for the Innovation Week had already crossed 1 lakh.
Goyal noted that this year marked the completion of 6 years of Startup India. The launch of ‘Startup India movement’ by Hon’ble PM in Jan’16, 2016 stirred the entrepreneurial spirit across India, he said.
Terming the startups as the harbingers of change, the Minister said that our startups have changed the mind-set from “Can do” to “Will do”. Startup India, which started as a mission to promote Innovation has today become a revolution of National Participation and National Consciousness, he observed.
Piyush Goyal called upon entrepreneurs to think of building Startups that focus on Healthifying people at a time when the world is facing successive waves of pandemic.
The Minister said that the New in New India symbolized the freshness of perspective and ideas that our startups bring. He added that our Startups were ‘Learning Earl, Learning Often, Learning from Experience and Learning from Others’. He asked innovators to celebrate failure, learn from their mistakes and turn them into stepping stones to success.
He outlined 3 goals for Indian entrepreneurs, ‘Make in India’, ‘Innovate in India’, and ‘Mentor the next generation of entrepreneurs’. He also said that there was a need to make our startups much more resilient so that they are well prepared to mitigate and overcome crisis situations like the pandemic.
