New Delhi, July 20 (KNN) The second edition of Vibrant Gujarat Startup and Technology Summit will be held from October 11 to 13, 2018. The event is being organized as a forerunner to the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit in January 2019.

This was announced in the curtain raiser event for the startup summit that took place in Ahmadabad on July 18, 2018.

In the run up to the summit the organizers will travel across 30 cities including tier 2 and 3 cities in the country inviting participants with innovative ideas. 

The mega investment bi-annual summit was started when Prime Minister Narendra Modi was then Chief Minister of Gujarat and its known to be one of his pet projects. 

M.K Das, Principal Secretary Industries and Mines, Government of Gujarat, the chief guest at the curtain raiser for the event said, “The Government of Gujarat is committed to the startup ecosystem to drive Gujarat and the nation’s growth.”

He said that the event will provide an excellent opportunity to both start-ups and stakeholders to connect with the best and brightest minds to explore how to fuel their business growth.

This event in the run up to the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit in 2019 will establish Gujarat as a hub for new technology based solution providers, he added.

The three-day program will include experiential learning and networking sessions for both start-ups and aspiring entrepreneurs.

The objective of the Summit is to showcase the forces driving India's, and Gujarat's, Start-up revolution and to strengthen the start-up ecosystem.

The program would comprise of talks by inspirational speakers, networking with business leaders/experts, interaction with Global Accelerators, display of Proof of Ideas, Mentoring/Evaluation, Funding options, validate and understand Next Generation changes, Grand Challenges, an Exhibition, etc.

The organizers have put forward a Grand Challenge this year with total prize money of Rs 3 crore. The aim of the Grand Challenge is to find innovators who can solve far reaching problems being faced by society in various sectors.

The Challenge is open to all start-ups registered in India and participants can enter at the Idea, Blooming or Scale-Up stage depending on the development stage of the start-up. 

The summit is organized by the Industries Commissionerate, iNDEXTb and GIDC from the Government of Gujarat with support from industry associations such as the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI), Gujarat Electronics & Software Industries Association (Gesia), Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India (EDII) and iCreate among others.