NEW DELHI: MSME Development Forum, in association with the Ministry of Railways and Ministry of Commerce and Industry (DIPP and Invest India) is organising the fourth edition of 'India International MSME & Start-Up Expo-2017' and second 'startup fest' and 'laghu udyog vyapar mela', from August 24 to 26, at Pragati Maidan in New Delhi.
The event will be inaugurated by Suresh Prabhu, Union Minister of Railways, along with Gen. Dr. VK Singh (Retd.), Union Minister of State - Ministry of External Affairs and Dr. Jitendra Singh (MoS).
The three-day event comprising of the exhibition, speaker sessions and startup fest will act as a perfect platform to exhibit and highlight the central's government's initiatives like 'Make in India', 'Startup India' for the MSME sector and Startup ecosystem. The forum also aims to address various challenges faced by small and medium entrepreneurs through various sessions, hosted and chaired by luminaries such as Gen. Dr. VK Singh (Retd.), Union Minister of State - Ministry of External Affairs, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Union Minister - IT & Electronics, Dr. Jitendra Singh, Minister of State - DONER, Mahesh Sharma, Union Minister of Tourism, Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister - Science & Technology, Smriti Irani, Union Minister of Textiles, Rajiv Pratap Rudy, Union Minister of Skill Development & Entrepreneurship (Independent Charge), Amar Agarwal, Industry Minister, Govt. of Chattisgarh, Satish Mahana, Minister of Industry & Development - Govt. of Uttar Pradesh, Soomilduth Bholah, Minister of Business & Enterprise, Republic of Mauritius, Deepak Bagla, CEO, Invest India, Ramesh Abhishek, Secretary - DIPP and Shraddha Sharma, CEO - Yourstory.com among others.
"We aim to attune to the unique needs of the MSME and Start-up community and to provide solutions to them to combat the challenges and critical issues concerning operations. The primary focus of the expo is to motivate the youth and prospective entrepreneurs to start their own enterprise and also educate them regarding the main difference between start-up and MSME," said Rajnish Goenka, Chairman - MSMEs Development Forum.
One of unique feature of the Startup Fest this year is that a select group of 20 startups will be shortlisted to showcase their ideas, products and services to the dignitaries and the participating delegates. MSME Development Forum will provide complimentary stalls to these 20 shortlisted startups worth Rs. 1 Lakh each.
This year, MSME Development Forum has also come up with a special initiative for women entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs from the SC/ST category. These entrepreneurs can set up their stalls for free at the expo by just registering at MSME's website on first cum first serve basis. The main motto of this initiative is to boost budding women entrepreneurs and SC/ST entrepreneurs along with creating more such opportunities in India.
The Forum endeavours to help the government by educating, promoting, reviving and accelerating the growth of MSMEs, Startups, Innovators, Women, ST/SC/OBC and Dalits, to strengthen the socio-economic structure and to generate new entrepreneurship and create new job opportunities for 65 percent of the youth of India.
Since its inception, MSME Development Forum has worked as a catalyst between the central/state government, business community and budding young entrepreneurs for policy making and successful implementation of government’s initiatives like Skill India, Make in India, Digital India, Startup India and Stand-Up India, Smart Cities by organising expos, trade fairs, summits, meets, conferences, seminars, road-shows and workshops.
The main focus of India’s only International MSME expo is to provide youth andprospective entrepreneurs a much needed unified global networking platform to exhibit their product and services. This not only helps them inexploring new business opportunities but also acts as a body where they can voice their opinions and grievances and find a solution through dialogue with the government.
The 4th International MSME & Start-Up Expo 2017 is supported by Start-Up India, DIPP, MSME Ministry and Make In India, along with state participation from Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Chhattisgarh government.
Like earlier years, more than fifteen Union and State Ministers and other stake holders such as prospective entrepreneurs, innovators, corporate, PSUs, banks, industries, businessman, foreign countries/ embassies/ delegates, investors, business chambers & associations, service support providers, buyers/ sellers/ franchisers, universities and media are participating in this expo.
Apart from these more than 20000 visitors, 250 Exhibitors, 50 overseas participants, 12 concurrent summit and 100 B2B and B2C meetings will also be the part of this mega Expo.
It is believed that India can achieve next level economic growth via MSMEs. The forum also connects global MSME’s for mutual business promotion, identifies cross border partnership opportunities and creates a strong platform for key decision makers, business leaders to strengthen the MSME sector. MSME Development Forum is a non-profit and non-political organisation, working with the objective to revive and accelerate the growth of MSME Sector, particularly laghu udhyamis.
MSME Development Forum is organizing this event in association with India Trade Promotion Organisation as the Co-organiser, FICCI as the industry partner and KPMG as its knowledge partner.