Kolhapur Startup Mission received more than 600 entries from different start-ups

Mumbai: The Kolhapur Startup Mission received more than 600 entries from different start-ups between January 15 and 31, 2021. Kolhapur Startup Mission is aimed at inviting and empowering start-ups in Kolhapur to solve the city’s civic issues through innovative ideas & technology, and supporting new entrepreneurship. The idea is the brainchild of Maharashtra Minister of State for Home, Housing & IT, Mr. Satej Patil. The Mission was launched in partnership with Kolhapur Incubation Center (KIC), DY Patil Education Group and Startup Incubation and Innovation Centre (SIIC) of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur on January 15, 2021.

The winning startups are Acquafront Infra, Riverbin, Samudhyoga Waste Chakra, Kolhapur-based Eco Green India and innovations by Tejaswini Mali and Ronak Sutaria.Based on the eligibility criteria, the organisers selected 133 applications for the second round and the same were evaluated on the relevance and innovations by the SIIC team. Of these, 60 entries were further selected for the third round and were evaluated by a panel of experts. After a detailed assessment, 15 entries were selected for the final presentation held on March 3, 2021. Over 100 startups from Kolhapur participated in this Innovation Challenge.

The esteemed panel members for the final round included Prof. Amitabha Bandopadhyay, Mr. Mithun John, Dr. C. D. Lokhande, Dr. Abhijit Sathe, Mr. Jai Shankar Sharma and Ms. Aditi Kumar. After detailed deliberations and discussions, the panel chose five start-ups that will receive technical, financial & co-incubation support from Kolhapur Innovation Center & SIIC IIT Kanpur.Commenting on this, Hon’ble Minister Satej Patil said, “I am extremely happy to see such an overwhelming response for Kolhapur Startup Mission. Thanks to the support of our Municipality Commisioner Dr. Kadambari Balkawade & MLA Ruturaj Patil, will able to provide all the administrative & local support to these startups to test the ideas in Kolhapur. I am confident that this initiative will make Kolhapur one of the top start-up destinations of the country.\\”

The focus areas for which the entries were invited included Water Management, Waste Management, Air Quality Management, Education, Public Health, E-governance, Agriculture and Mobility & Transportation.The winners were announced in the presence of Dr. Anita Gupta, Head-NSTEDB, DST, Govt of India, MLA Shri Ruturaj Patil, Dr. Kadambari Balkawade, IAS, Commisioner, Kolhapur Municipal Corporation, Dr. Nikhil Agarwal, CEO, SIIC, IIT Kanpur and Shri Deependra Singh Kushwah, IAS, Nodal Officer & CEO, MSInS.