Ahmedabad: The upcoming edition of Vibrant Gujarat Summit (VGS) in January 2017 will lay emphasis on startups as well as micro, small and medium-enterprises (MSMEs), Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani said on October 21.

“The state government has announced a startup policy to ensure that Gujarat does not lag behind in this area. The forthcoming Vibrant Summit will stress upon startups and MSMEs,” Rupani said while inaugurating a two-day Vibrant Gujarat Startup Summit-2016 in Gandhinagar.

Organised as a pre-event to VGS-17, the startup summit received overwhelming response from young entrepreneurs with Startup Grand Challenge’ alone receiving 1,300 entries. Of these, 26 startups have been shortlisted for pitching their ideas and prototypes to angel investors and incubators

“At a time when the world is marching ahead in innovations, youths in Gujarat should not stay behind. They should become `job givers’ and not `job seekers’ by bringing their innovations into the market,” the CM said. A Startup Vision Document-2020, a coffee table book and an official portal for startups were also unveiled in the presence the Chief Minister and industry players.

“The government of India is setting up seven research parks and 16 tech-based startups centres in India. We want to work with states for nurturing startups,” said Ramesh Abhishek, Secretary , Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, government of India.

“There will be an active involvement of the state government, industry and academia to make Gujarat the startup destination,” said PK Taneja, Additional Chief Secretary, state industries and mines department.

Source: Times of India