Viksit Bharat Startup Conclave: Nagpur’s Innovation Moment

“The Viksit Bharat startup conclave witnessed high octane energy among aspiring entrepreneurs, especially the school children, where it opened new pathways for collaboration, inspiration and innovation among the startup ecosystem in Nagpur. It was a momentous occasion for Nagpur to welcome and meet Startup founders from across India & abroad participating in the Grand Finale of Innopreneurs Startup contest. We are committed to nurturing a thriving, inclusive ecosystem where problems in Bharat are solved with tech for Good and sustainability as our motives. Such founder-focused programs would propel our collective dream towards 2047 of Viksit Bharat. Jai Ho!“ - Deepak Menaria, Founder of Lemon Ideas.

The Viksit Bharat startup conclave was organised to celebrate the spirit of entrepreneurship,

innovation and startups while pushing our dream towards 2047. The event propelled the need for Bharat solutions for the problem of Bharat. It was a unique program where children, adults and veterans all participated with an intention of learning, collaboration and making India a developed Nation. The two-day Conclave was organised by VED Council and Lemon Ideas in partnership with RTM Nagpur University and Vidarbha Infotech Private Limited.

The two-day conclave was a get-together of over 100 startups from across the country & abroad, and over 50 speakers, investors and 1000’s of aspiring entrepreneurs, youth and students, including school children.

A major part of the conclave was the grand finale of the Innopreneurs season 12 global startup contest organised by Lemon Ideas, with over 50+ Startup teams participating in the Grand Finale from about 30 cities in the country as well as abroad. The Innopreneurs contest included the Startup track, Innovation Track and the junior track for children below the age of 18 years. The season witnessed over 1200 registrations, 600+ presentations spread over 9 months, making it one of the biggest & popular startup events in the country. The contest was designed to make it inclusive for Bharat with multiple languages for presentations, and around 25% startup pitches were done in Hindi and other regional languages. Many interesting and breakthrough Startup ideas and innovations were presented during the conclave covering sectors like Aerospace, Health Care, Education, Agriculture, Services, AI & Deep tech, Culture tech, and SME, among others.

Winners of the startup contest are as follows:

2nd Runner-up: Cordifirm Studios, Pune (Chetan Vohra)

1st Runner-up: Alert24, Vishakhapatnam, A.P. (Teja Dadi)

Winner: Tekas Footcare, Nagpur (Utkarsh Pande)

The innovation winners are:

2nd Runner-up: Ayco Life Sciences, Bangalore (Naveen G.N., Dr Ramesh B.N., Rangachar V.)

1st Runner-up: Vision Forge Ventures, Sanchore, Rajasthan (Manoj Parmar & Dinesh Kumar Soni)

Winner: EcoET Technologies, Delhi (Dip Nanda, Tushar Jain)

The other components of the two-day conclave included knowledge sessions, panel discussions ranging from spirituality to failures and projecting Nagpur as a Startup growth engine and training bootcamp, startup expo, among other learning opportunities. 

The program was curated to specifically focus on the funding needs for startups and present a realistic scenario where an open house with investors was conducted, as well as the keynote talk by a leading investor, Amit Singal, Partner at Fluid Ventures & Indicom Angles, Delhi.

More than 20 Alumni Founders from the Lemon Ideas ecosystem actively co-created the conclave to make it an event by the founders & for the founders. Many of these Alumni startups from across India participated as jury as well as investors. These include udChalo (Pune), Aerobay (Noida), Agrivijay(Pune), TechDome (Hyderabad), Medyseva (Indore), EF polymer (Udaipur), Econiture (Amravati), Drive Tech Intelligence (Pune), Web Beta (Nagpur), AiQoD (Pune), Kommon School (Gwalior), HESA (Hyderabad), Khichadiwala (Bangalore/Nagpur), and Nautical Wings Aerospace (Bangalore). The Alumni super founders are actively looking at investment and mentoring prospects from the conclave.

The Juniors' event was attended by over 350 students from 12 schools in Nagpur to witness the top presentations of junior startup founders and innovators to present their breakthrough ideas as well as participation in the innovation quiz. The Innopreneurs Juniors finale was inaugurated by Mr Vilas Kale, Past President- VED Council, Nagpur, with the prominent presence of Vikram Gandhe, Winner of MasterChef India 2026.

The winners of the Innopreneurs Junior contest were:

Special recognition: Aveer Chaddha, Mumbai (6 yrs)

2 nd runner up -Smart Sight, Nagpur (Ansh Mulmule,13 yrs )

1st Runner-up - Digirakshak, New Delhi (Aryak Sahai & Vatsal Garg,16 yrs )

Winner- Golden years, Amritsar (Guransh Singh, 14 yrs)

A special Nagpur startup awards campaign was run as part of the Viksit Bharat Startup conclave with over 100 registrations and multiple Audition & presentation rounds. The winner of the Nagpur startup award was Shukl Solutions (Dr. Sumita Rao, Tanushre Thakre, Sujal Shahu).

The popular choice award was bagged by the Junior team AI Conditioner from Pune.

A few prominent guests in the conclave included:

Yaseen Shareef, Venture Partner, IN44 Capital VC

• Dr. Ramjee Palela- Sr. Consultant, Indian STEPs and Business Incubators Association (ISBA)

• Ravi Kumar- Founder: UdChalo, Co-Founder: VIR BIKE, Lemon Alumni 2014, Pune

• Dushyant Deshpande, Director, Vidarbha Defence Industrial Hub

• Devendra Parekh, Past President, VED Council, Nagpur

• Dr. Abhay Deshmukh, Director, Incubein, RTMNU, Nagpur

• Dilip Kamdar, Co-founder, Naivedhyam Hospitality Ventures

• Dr. Suresh Chari, Softskill Trainer & Motivator

• Mukesh Ashar, Director, Lemon Ideas

Mr Prashant Ugemuge, MD, Vidarbha Infotech Private Limited, shared his practical experience and tips for founders as part exclusive interaction during the inaugural ceremony.

The valedictory ceremony witnessed recognition of 50 startup founders & innovators for the Grand finale of the Innopreneurs contest.

The ceremony was attended by the Chief Guest, Pankaj Bhoyar, Minister of State, Government of Maharashtra.

Guest of Honour- Shrikant Patil, CEO, Maharashtra State Innovation Society 

Guest of Honour- Dr Manali Kshirsagar VC, RTM Nagpur University 

Special Guest-Shreyas Ugemuge – Director, Vidarbha Infotech Pvt. Ltd.

The organising team included Amol, Ashwin, Aatish, Ali, Saee, Arinjay, Padmanabh, Abhishek, Simran, Girish, Anand, Deesha, and Pratham, among others.

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