60 start-ups to participate in two-day conclave at SOA

Bhubaneswar: Around 60 start-ups, working on new technologies aimed at enabling farmers to adopt climate-resilient practices and other modern methods of agriculture, will be taking part in a two-day conclave titled ‘Ideation to Commercialisation—Opportunities for Start-ups’ beginning at the Siksha ‘O’ Anusandhan Deemed to be University here on Saturday.

The conclave is being organised by Livelihood Alternatives, a social enterprise, in association with Institute of Rural Management Anand (IRMA)-iSEED Foundation, PACE Foundation and SOA.

The objective of the conclave will be to create an enabling framework where ideas, technological know-how and methods emanating from the social start-up eco-system could be leveraged for a market fit product, Mr. Sambit Tripathy, Chairman cum Managing Director, Livelihood Alternatives, told a news conference here on Friday.

It would expose farmers, artisans and rural households in Odisha to the world of new ideas, technology and innovations. The conclave will have two parallel tracks—one where the start-ups will be presenting ideas and technology to the target audience while the other will provide them the space to exhibit their products, he said.
The conclave will help the start-ups with market-connect while farmers and rural households in Odisha will get an opportunity to enhance their income by adopting new technology and business models, Mr. Tripathy said.

The start-ups are largely drawn from different social incubators, including from Odisha. The prominent participating incubators are I-hub Gujarat, IRMA-SEED Foundation, KIIT-TBI, Social Alpha and Institute of Life Sciences. Around 300 farmers from 65 blocks of Odisha are expected to participate in the conclave, he informed.

A Hackathon event is also scheduled to be held as part of the event where start-ups will compete with each other for creating sustainable models in the domains of agriculture, dairy and allied industries and agro forestry.

Prof. Priyabrata Patnaik, Additional Dean (Research) of SOA and Dr. Rakesh Arrawatia, Chair, iSEED, were present during the news conference.