Vidarbha IndustriesAssociation (VIA) in association with Lemon Ideas celebrated the 5thEdition of ‘National Entrepreneurs Day’ on 16th January 2021. As ourHon’ble Prime Minister, Narendra Modi announced the ‘Start-up India Action PlanLaunch’ on 16.01.2016, which benefits and schemes to promote the start-upecosystem in India.
Chief Guest of the virtualfelicitation ceremony was former Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Devendra Fadnavis expressed that this being the happy coincidence that even at the timeof this ceremony, Prime Minister Modi was interacting with some startup leadersof the country at the Prarambh initiative. He also stressed the importance ofinnovations, especially in the technological ones, to bring about equity in thesociety.
He said “India reallyneeds to convert ideas into capital to leapfrog towards realising our aim ofbecoming a $ 5 trillion economy. He urged the young entrepreneurs to worktowards generating a new ecosystem that connects agriculture to marketing andhelps farmers in making better decisions in a sustainable way with the help oftechnology.” He further added that they must recognise the technologicalgaps, education gaps, equity gaps and help the government to bridge them.
He also informed about the State’sstartup and innovations policy that helped it become a hub forentrepreneurship. The success of this policy can be varied from the fact thatMaharashtra has the largest number of new startups coming up for the last twoyears, as per NITI Aayog reports. This number will be increased further withexperienced entrepreneurs coming forward to hand hold and mentor the younger oneslike Lemon Ideas.”
This year’s theme was ongoing pandemic- COVID19, Entrepreneurs and Innovators, who had done significant work, starteda venture around an idea related to COVID-19 as well as change-makers, who had workeddirectly on social challenges of the COVID adversity. Sixteen startups were selectedby eminent juries and awarded that used the COVID19pandemic to improve the lives of Nagpur people and the difficulties arisingfrom it, as the opportunity to innovate during the adversity were honoured fortheir contributions on National Entrepreneurs’ Day.
The entrepreneurs awardedduring the ceremony include : Dr Chandrashekhar Gillurkar – Gillurkar Hospitals;Ajinkya Shinde – Invenzee Technologies; Kuldeep Wadaskar – 3not Robotics Pvt Ltd;Pratik Gadkar – Technoventor Innovations; Prerna Chandak – Global ShapersCommunity Nagpur (NGO), Shipra Dawar – ePsyclinic Healthcare Pvt Ltd; Harsh Lal- Medicfibers Pvt Ltd; Sriveera M – Aparoks Tech Pvt Ltd; Dr Deovrat Begde -CURO Biosciences Pvt Ltd; Madhur Rathi – Econiture; Shalom Kingston – CarbonHubs Pvt Ltd; Shikha Verma Thutheja – Studio Uniforms.com; Aditya Asabe –Sanishooter; Abheejit Khandagale – Ekatra and Keshav Daga – PSI Healthcare.
Guest of honour, VishalAgrawal, Managing Director of RC Plasto, an entrepreneur, who took his familybusiness to the next big level. He guided the entrepreneurs on good habits andsurrounding to build the right acumen. Girdhari Mantri, President of UdyogAghadi BJP Vidarbha was prominently present.
Suresh Rathi, President of VIAemphasized the need for such recognition platforms and announced that wewould continue to celebrate Entrepreneurs Day every year. He said VIA has been puttingvarious efforts and programs for nurturing startups and new entrepreneurs incollaboration with Lemon School of Entrepreneurship. He applauded the hosts fornot only holding such events but for playing an active role in mentoring ideasand turning them into commercially viable businesses.
Elaborating the objective forselecting January 16; Mukesh Ashar from Lemon Ideas informed that this was theday in 2016 when Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced benefits and schemes topromote the start-up ecosystem in India: ‘Start-up India Action Plan Launch’.As the country does not have an official entrepreneurship, Lemon Ideas withVidarbha Industries Association has been celebrating this day as ‘EntrepreneursDay’.
Talking about the theme forthis year being COVID 19, LemonIdeas Founder, Deepak Menaria said that five days’ into the lockdown, theincubator started looking for disruptors who would turn the adversity into anopportunity. Dr Suhas Buddhe, Vice President of VIA said all the nominees haddisplayed great bravery, risk-taking ability and persistence to ensure theirideas reached out to the people in need during the pandemic.
A special honour was conferredupon physician, Dr Chandrashekhar Gillurkar, whose Hospital was the only onefrom Maharashtra out of the twelve across the country for the clinical trial ofIndia’s first indigenous COVID 19vaccine.
Nitin Gujarathi from lemonIdeas proposed a formal vote of thanks and the team from VIA and Lemon Ideas workedhard to make this event a success over a virtual platform.
