Startup Mahakumbh, India’s biggest celebration of startups, kicked off today at Bharat Mandapam, Pragati Maidan. Shri Rajesh Kumar Singh, Secretary, DPIIT, Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MOC&I), Government of India (GoI), delivered the inaugural address in the presence of key government and private officials including Sh Amitabh Kant, G20 Sherpa & Former CEO, NITI Aayog, GoI, members of organising committee including Prashanth Prakash, Founder, Accel, Sanjay Nayar, Sr Vice President, ASSOCHAM & Founder and Chairman, Sorin Investments, Archana Jahagirdar, Founding and Managing Partner, Rukam Capital and Sanjeev Bikhchandani, Co-founder and Executive Vice Chairman, Info Edge and Satya Narayan Meena, CEO & CFO, IRSSE.    Ahead of the inauguration, Arvind Gupta, CEO, of Digital India Foundation hosted a panel around - Role of startups in realizing the vision of Viksit Bharat, with panelists Debjani Ghosh, nasscom, Shri Prashant Kumar Singh, CEO, Government e Marketplace (GeM), Government of India, Anil Kumar Sagar, Department of IT - Govt of UP, Ranjan Anandan, Peak XV and Rikant Pittie, Easemytrip. The panel focussed on Hon’ble Prime Minister’s vision to Think Big and continue the vibrancy in the country's startup landscape. India, today, has 20B+ of private equity and funding ready to be invested in private companies. The need of the hour is to build high-quality businesses and map the path to profitability coupled with an unprecedented level of innovation to continue the momentum.   Shri Rajesh Kumar Singh, Secretary, DPIIT, Ministry of Commerce and Industry (MOC&I), Government of India (GoI), in the keynote address defined Startup Mahakumbh as ‘coming out’ party of the Indian startup ecosystem. He highlighted, “Startup Mahakumbh epitomises the Prime Minister’s vision that the whole society should accept the goal of becoming a developed nation and work towards it. It also encapsulates the idea of public-private partnership, given the event is backed by DPIIT and organised by industry stakeholders. It will be interesting to see. The Indian Startup landscape is an avalanche of new ideas and we are ready to celebrate it in the form of Startup Mahakumbh. It will be encouraging to see the kind of synergies that companies and startups exhibiting here create. We hope that Startup Mahakumbh allows everyone to pursue their path to dreams, further charting the path towards Viksit Bharat.”   Sh Amitabh Kant, G20 Sherpa & Former CEO, NITI Aayog, GoI, highlighted the pace of growth of Indian Startup ecosystem, highlighted, “From 4 to 400+ incubators, 150+ unicorn, $350B+ valuation, 20x increase in funding, 12x increase in investors, 8x increase in incubators - India’s startup story is a truly remarkable one. Today, the sector has created close to a million jobs, 10M indirect jobs, and 4M+ jobs in the gig economy. This has been made possible by young startups, disrupting the system. We believe that startups are national assets and the challenge is to take India from third to first position on the global map. It will be imperative to focus on corporate governance, finance management, good audit, good mentorship, and professional board for startups to build a sustained growth story in the ecosystem.”   Startup Mahakumbh is a huge and once-in-a-lifetime opportunity where startups can witness the Prime Minister’s will, an entrepreneurial drive of startups, and great administration in the form of DPIIT coming together for India to become the first, best, and foremost startup ecosystems in the world,” he added.   Satya Narayan Meena, CEO & CFO, of IRSSE concluded the note by expressing his delight to all the dignitaries and guests and highlighting how Startup Mahakumbh will be a melting pot of disrupting ideas and a beacon for all inspiring entrepreneurs. The event is supported by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), MeitY Startup Hub (MSH) and Invest India. Startup Mahakumbh onboards top unicorns in the sponsors list, with Games 24X7, Oyo and Info Edge as Unicorn Gold sponsors, Dream11, Flipkart, Infra Market, Moglix, Nykaa as Unicorn Silver sponsors, BharatPe and Razorpay as Unicorn Bronze sponsors. The list of AIF sponsors includes Accel, Rukam Capital and Peak XV in the gold category, Aavishkar Group, Elevation Capital, Iron Pillar in the silver sponsorship category and Avendus Capital, Chiratae Ventures, Fireside Ventures, IvyCap Ventures and Sorin Investments in the bronze category of AIF sponsors. The event will also connect Indian startups with event partners including Dalmia Bharat & Google (silver partners), Acko, Captain Fresh, Mobile Premier League (MPL), Jetsynthesis, Tally (bronze partners), IAN & Blume Ventures (session partners), IDFC First Bank (Bank partner), MM Active & India Mobile Congress (IMC) (Event partners) and Indian School of Business (ISB) (Academic partner).