Bihar Idea Festival Portal Goes Live: A New Dawn for Bihar Startups

BusinessWire India

Patna (Bihar) [India], July 15: The Bihar Idea Festival, an initiative aimed at discovering and supporting emerging startups across the state, driven by ideas, identity, and innovation, has taken a significant step forward with the launch of its new portal, opening a "significant opportunity for Bihar's startup sector."

Launched a few weeks ago, it is a flagship initiative of the Department of Industries, Government of Bihar, and YourStory Media, in partnership with JEEViKA, the Chandragupta Institute of Management Patna, National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM), and IIT Patna.

Nitish Mishra, Minister of the Department of Industries along with Shradha Sharma, Founder and CEO of YourStory and Mihir Kumar Singh, Addl. Chief Secretary, Industries Department, launched Bihar Idea Festival Portal today at a press conference held at Vikas Bhawan, Patna. The event was also attended by senior officials from the Department of Industries, Government of Bihar, representatives of partner organisations involved in policy and implementation, and experts from the innovation and startup ecosystem.

The Bihar Idea Festival seeks to ignite entrepreneurship across Bihar's 38 districts by gathering over 10,000 ideas from young people, students, self-help groups, artisans and farmers. These ideas will get access to pitching for seed funding of Rs 10 lakh under the Bihar Startup Policy and acceleration support of up to Rs 3 lakh.

Meanwhile, the initiative's GI Entrepreneurship Mission aims to discover 10 new GI-worthy products, create more than 50,000 market linkages for GI products and One District One Product clusters, and foster local pride through identity-led innovation.

Speaking at the event, Industries Minister Nitish Mishra noted, "Bihar's startup journey is making strong progress. Biharis are known for their 'Out of Box Thinking'. They are extremely hardworking and are often called 'Jugaadu' (resourceful).We will promote these ideas and startups and contribute significantly to realising our Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi Ji's dream of 'Developed India'. There are immense possibilities for startups in Bihar."

"Following the lines of 'Lakhpati Didi' and 'Jeevika Didi', women of the state will now also become 'Startup Didis' through this initiative, he explained. With maximum participation, we want the youth and entrepreneurs of the state to contribute not only to Bihar but also to the economic activity of the country. We will empower them by providing all possible help. Now Bihar will also walk hand-in-hand with the world's startup ecosystem," the Minister remarked.

YourStory chief Shradha Sharma expressed gratitude and appreciation for the efforts and support of Honourable Minister Mishra towards the Bihar Idea Festival, which aims to showcase the entrepreneurial ideas emerging from the state.

"We will go to every district of Bihar and show the youth, women, artisans, and farmers there how they can start their own businesses. Our goal is to collect 10,000 startup ideas. Selected startups from these will be given incubation support, mentorship, and funding," she noted.

"Youth of Bihar has innate talent of innovation and entrepreneurship. Through this event, we will try to tap the potential of innovative youths at the grassroots level," said Nikhil Dhanraj Nippanikar, IAS, Director (Handloom and Sericulture).

Over the past year, the startup team has helped increase the number of startups in the state.

"This is a moment of pride for the people of the state, startups, entrepreneurs, and youth. So far, there are a total of 1,500 registered startups in the state. This number was 500 just a year ago, which has almost doubled within just one year," Shekhar Anand, IAS, Director-Technical Development, Industries Department, Government of Bihar, said, adding that this initiative will provide the state's startup ecosystem with fresh direction and impetus.

Opportunities for startups

The festival comprises district-level events in all 38 districts, a mass mobilisation drive, masterclasses on idea validation, pitch-deck preparation and go-to-market strategy, and a grand finale in Patna.

Its GI Entrepreneurship Mission will upskill artisans and producer groups, enable over 50,000 digital storefronts on Flipkart Samarth, Amazon Karigar and ONDC, and uncover new GI-worthy products.

The Changemaker Spotlight Series will profile 500 entrepreneurs through reels, blogs, podcasts and a travelling Inspiration Wall, while ShuruKar AI offers an AI-powered WhatsApp mentor, providing multilingual guidance, personalised pitch-document creation and government scheme discovery.

Funding and market access support includes wild-card entry to seed-fund pitching rounds under the Bihar Startup Policy, certification of recognition by the Industries Department, acceleration grants of up to Rs 3 lakh, access to the Bharat Project Fund, government schemes, CSR opportunities and a deep mentorship network.

By project's end, out of 10,000 ideas collected across all districts, the top 100 ideas will pitch at the festival's VC/investor mixer; and leading startups will gain wild-card entry to the Rs 10 lakh seed-fund pitching round.

The top ten founders will receive scholarships on the PGDM (Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Venture creation) course at CIMP, while the top 25 startups will join TiE Patna's Startup Nurture Programme. Bihar's traditional businesses will be showcased with dedicated market linkages, 100 products from Jeevika women will feature at the festival, and GI products will be promoted through curated market connections.

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