Bhubaneswar: Odisha Startup Xpress, a flagship initiative of the state government, is set to kick off in various schools in the Khurda district on Friday.
According to an official release, Xpress Vans will visit 60+ schools across 30 districts of Odisha to guide and empower young minds in the realms of innovation and entrepreneurship at the grassroots level. It will cover ten schools in the Khurda district – Kendriya Vidyalaya, Jatni (Khurda Road), Doon International School, DAV Kalinga Nagar, Apeejay School, Prabhujee School, KV – 1 (Janpath), Capital Boys High School, Mother’s Public School, ODM Global School and St Xavier’s International School.
Odisha Startup Yatra 2023 took off in Bhubaneswar on Monday and saw enthusiastic participation from over 1,384 students in the districts, resulting in the generation of 130+ innovative ideas from 13 colleges. “Within three days, it has received an overwhelming 360+ ideas from Khurda district, laying a solid foundation for the state government’s ambition of creating 5,000 Startups by 2025,” the release said.
On Thursday, Startup Yatra visited thirteen institutes in and around Khurda, including CV Raman Global University, GITA, Gandhi Engineering College, Birla Global University, STPI, OUTR University, IMI Bhubaneswar, CTTC, CIPET, GIET (Baniatangi), NIIS, IITTM, and GIET (Gothapatana), it added.
During the Startup Yatra, 50 shortlisted ideas will be invited for a 3-day acceleration programme. Thereafter, top 25 ideas will be invited to O-Hub for the demo day and out of those, 10 will be awarded seed funding worth Rs 3 lakh each to develop their ideas into viable startup ventures.
This apart, top 20 ideas from Startup Xpress 2023 will be invited for final pitching and 10 of those awarded with cash prize of Rs 10,000 each to encourage these young students and build their entrepreneurial spirit.
In the last edition of Startup Odisha Yatra, 10,270 students from over 100 colleges had participated. A total of 22 top ideas were selected for the acceleration programme, culminating in the demo day, where 11 finalists were awarded Rs 1 lakh each.
