Amit Shah inaugurates Startup Conclave 2025 in Gujarat

Union Home and Cooperation Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday inaugurated a two-day Startup Conclave 2025 in Gandhinagar of Gujarat, bringing founders, investors and policymakers from across India together for a wide-ranging showcase and policy dialogue.

“The Startup Conclave is a platform to convert India’s knowledge and innovation into jobs and businesses,” he said on the occasion, while calling on investors to “help new startups grow”.

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Shah also said in future these startups will, in turn, make investors “big”.

Accompanied by Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel and Higher Education Minister Rushikesh Patel, the Union Home Minister said the country’s youth was moving from “job-seekers to job-creators” and urged investors to back early-stage ventures.

Shah said startups have provided employment to roughly 1.79 million people and noted that 48 per cent of new startups are founded by women — statistics he cited to underline the sector’s growing social and economic footprint.

Over 170 startups are exhibiting, presenting products and services across sectors including technology, healthcare, agri-tech, fin-tech and green energy.

The event features an exhibition of prototypes and demonstrations, a round-table conference that brings founders into direct dialogue with industry experts, and seven themed sessions focused on scaling innovation, financing models and university-industry linkages.

Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel welcomed the conclave as an opportunity to reinforce Gujarat’s position as an entrepreneurial hub, while Higher Education Minister Rushikesh Patel highlighted the role of universities and research institutions in mentoring early-stage companies and translating academic research into commercial ventures.

The conclave offered much-needed visibility and networking opportunities, but flagged persistent challenges. “Access to early-stage capital and pilot customers remains a bottleneck for many founders,” one exhibitor opined.

Investors in attendance reiterated the need for clearer pathways for pilot procurement and sector-specific incubation, particularly for climate and health tech start-ups.

A round-table discussion held on the sidelines examined practical steps to strengthen the ecosystem, including improvements to beneficiary registries, blended finance mechanisms for climate tech, and incentives to encourage institutional procurement from startups.

The conclave aims to generate actionable policy recommendations for both state and central governments and to launch a matchmaking platform to connect startups with investors and procurement opportunities, the organisers said.