G20 Digital Innovation Alliance calls for more participation of youth in startup ecosystem

Bhubaneswar: The G20 Digital Innovation Alliance (G20-DIA) meet at KIIT-TBI was held today with emphasis on creating awareness among youth, innovators and start-ups to recognize and support young minds that are working on digital solutions and also planning to participate in the mega summit in Bengaluru in August, this year.

Chairing the inaugural function, Founder of KIIT and KISS Dr Achyuta Samanta said “startup is very close to my heart. Now through startups and ideas enterprising youths can reach the pinnacle of success. Citing the example of KIITian Gautam Kumar, Co-Founder and COO of FarEye, the noted educationist, however, added that while the concept, has taken the world by storm, was never heard during our time.’’

Dr Samanta, lauding Prime Minister’s visionary initiative to empower the youth of India to propel our economic progress in a new direction during the presidentship of the G-20, also informed that KIIT-DU will be a venue for important events like Youth-20, Think-20 and Civil-20 in near future.

He also said that KIIT-TBI has successfully incubated 380 startups and created more than 5,000 job opportunities in various sectors with innovative ideas and solutions.

Chaired the #G20 Digital Innovation Alliance meet at KIIT-TBI today.

Empowering young minds in the startup ecosystem is crucial for India’s economic progress. Let’s support and encourage innovation for a brighter future. Here are some snapshots!@g20org pic.twitter.com/QfP0V4S9mz

— Achyuta Samanta (@achyuta_samanta) March 9, 2023

Jeet Vijay, CEO MeitY Startup Hub under Ministry of Electronics and IT, while giving the introductory remarks, said “currently there are more than 90,000 startups in India and the August G20-DIA Startup Conclave in Bengaluru would be one of the biggest event for the G-20 nations to take the evolution of start-up ecosystem to a different level as there would be showcasing of 174 concepts which would be short-listed for all the submissions from the participating nations.’’

Saying that India has revolutionised the UPI payment system in its economic framework and now billions are getting transacted daily through the digital gateway enabled by the Government, the participation of youth through this “Digitization: Enabling India’s Tech Growth’’ would definitely help the entire world.

Former Secretary Technology Development Board under Department of Science and Technology of the Government of India, HK Mittal spoke about how, as a role model the Founder of KIIT and KISS, Dr Samanta has become an inspiration through his experiment with education and bringing in inclusive socio-cultural changes in a state like Odisha and outside, as well.

Remembering the Y2K crisis during the technological issues relating to the transition of time from the last midnight of 1999 to 2000, and how Indian techies had helped the entire world with their expertise and knowledge, Mittal also urged the young students and members of the startup communities to set their goals on G20-DIA and bring in more innovations to the digital world.

CEO of KIIT TBI Prof Mrutyunjay Suar, while welcoming the guests, also said how the KIIT-TBI has been awarded as the best TBI in India and has been patronising technological and entrepreneurial innovations in a unique way through the support from the Centre and State Government.

During the subsequent sessions post-inauguration, KIITian Gautam Kumar, Co-Founder and COO of FarEye, Satya Gupta CEO Epic Foundation, Prof. Shreepad Karmalkar Director IIT Bhubaneswar, noted entrepreneur Sidharth Mohanty and other noted experts participated in the G20-DIA meet. More than 450 innovators and startups participated in today’s event.