Jaipur: Releasing The Economic Times coffee table book on Business Leaders of Rajasthan 2019, chief minister Ashok Gehlot in a tongue in cheek humour said trade and commerce is disappearing and the business community is unhappy but still they are doing Modi, Modi.
"This will not last long if the economy continues to get weaker and weaker. The GDP growth has fallen to 5% and it could be actually lower than that," said Gehlot. Read More..

दुनियाभर में क्लाइमेट चेंज को लेकर चल रही बहस के बीच देश के राजस्थान टेक्निकल यूनिवर्सिटी के छात्र रह चुके दो युवाओं ने ऐसी बैटरी बनाई है, जो न केवल इको फ्रेंडली (eco-friendly) है, बल्कि जहरीली भी नहीं है. इन युवाओं ने इस बैटरी में ऐसे पदार्थों का इस्तेमाल किया है, जो कि सौंदर्य प्रसाधनों और दवाइयों में इस्तेमाल किए जाते हैं. इन बैटरियों को बनाने वाले युवाओं के अविष्कार को दुनिया के टॉप आठ स्टार्टअप्स में शामिल किया गया है और अब इन्हें स्पेन आमंत्रित किया गया है. Read More..

Jaipur: In a bid to facilitate women entrepreneurs, an incubation and acceleration programme funded by Germany government and supported by ministry of skill development and entrepreneurship was launched in Rajasthan which will be expanded later in Assam and Telangana. The project ‘Her & Now’ is aimed to create a cohesive learning environment for women entrepreneurs, said Julia Karst, project head, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) which along with Startup Oasis is implementing the project. Read More..

The award was presented under the category of ‘solid waste management’. Mumbai airport is managed by the Mumbai International Airport Limited, which is a GVK-led company and bagged the award for the airport’s sustainable development.
Mumbai Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport (CSMIA) wins big at the Econaur awards 2019! Being developed on the basis of green sustainable solutions, the Mumbai airport has been awarded the online Sustainability Award 2019 at Econaur. Read More..

एन्वायरमेंट फ्रेंडली और सस्टेनेबल प्रोडक्ट बनाने का सपना लेकर आंत्रप्रिन्योर शिल्पी और अभिमन्यु सिंह साथ चले थे। इन दोनों की मुलाकात ग्रेजुएशन के दौरान हुई थी। दोनों आर्किटेक्ट की पढ़ाई साथ कर रहे थे। चूंकि साथ में कॉलेज में दोनों ने पेपर प्रोडक्ट और मॉडल्स पर काफी काम किया। उसी काम को आगे बढ़ाने का फैसला किया, क्योंकि दोनों कभी भी नौकरी नहीं करना चाहते थे। अलग काम करने की चाहत में दोनों ने 2011 से 2015 तक मार्केट में काम किया। मगर कुछ खास सफलता हाथ नहीं लगी, निराशा हाथ लगते देख दोनों ने नया सीखने की चाहत में मिलान में प्रोडक्ट सर्विस सिस्टम डिजाइन कोर्स में डबल मास्टर की डिग्री के लिए अप्लाय कर दिया। और आज ये पेपर हनी कोम्ब से फर्नीचर और रेडी टू असेम्बल ग्रीन होम बना रहे हैं। Read More..

The Jaipur based Edtech Company, Tinkerly (Elation Edtech Pvt Ltd) has inked a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Central Institute of Education (CIE) now known as the Department of Education of the University of Delhi, to nurture and promote creative and innovative mindsets in schools.
The MoU was signed by CIE Delhi Dean and Head of the Department, Dr Namita Ranganathan, and Managing Director, Tinkerly, Vivek Pathak in presence of an associate professor, Dr Alka Behari and other representatives from Tinkerly. Read More..

At a time when ecommerce majors like Flipkart and Amazon are sweeping the country with their deals and festive sales, a social commerce startup from Jaipur is scoring over its bigger counterparts.
Started by 40-year-old Vineet Rao, Sankar Bora and Sourjyendu Medda, DealShare was started in September 2018 in Jaipur, Rajasthan.
The startup, which follows a social commerce model, mostly targets non-metro and middle-income customers in India with mass-market products. Read More..

Rahib Kolsawala, 29, a farmer based in Dungarpur, Rajasthan, belongs to a family that has been farming for at least 30 years now.
About 1.5 years ago, Rahib started practising organic farming and decided to prepare his own vermicompost.
Thankfully, Kaavyanam Organics, a startup, which is based in his village, came to his help. Read More..

Sarga was conceived with the notion of providing democracy of creation to students through 3D printing in Education. Sarga was founded by the Three Musketeers, Parth, Rahul & Ajay all Engineers, whose journey began in October 2018. Subsequent to working for 3 months straight they were ready to test the prototype in the test market which, for them was Udaipur. When people started responding, they started generating revenue in March 2019. Read More..

The Honorable Chief Minister of Rajasthan, along with senior government officials visited the Techno Hub on 31 August 2019. As part of the visit, the Hon'ble Chief Minister was given an overview of the the incubator including the digital museum. The Hon'ble Chief Minister also interacted with select startups incubated at Techno Hub.

The IAS Association, Rajasthan, in association with iStart Rajasthan, conducted an audio-visual experience sharing session on the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra at the Techno Hub, Jaipur, on 21 September 2019. In the session, top government officials such as Mr. Pankaj Singh, Mr. Bhaskar Sawant, Ms. Mugdha Sinha, Mr. Gaurav Bajad and Mr. Otaram Choudhary shared their experience of embarking on the treacherous journey to the peak of Mt. Kailash for seeking the blessings of Lord Shiva and taking a dip in the holy Mansarovar lake. The session was attended by a diverse audience comprising of government officials, industry leaders, students, startups and media personnel and was followed by Prasad distribution and a high tea function.

An investor connect with the objective of providing a DEMO DAY to start ups who attended the 4 day master classes was organized at techno hub. This full day event was the final culmination of 4 day master class organized by Indian Angel Network and Startup Tunnel. It aimed at providing an opportunity to shortlisted startups to pitch their business to the investor panel. The investors on the panel were:
(1) Hari Balasubramanian, Indian Angel Network
(2) Prashant Pansare, Eagle 10 Ventures
(3) Nesar Rao, Gilda VC
(4) Priyanka Ahuja, Startup Tunnel
The startups effectively pitched to investors and explored possibilities of investment and micro mentoring. The startups were provided inputs, feedback and suggestions to accelerate their growth by the investor panel. The startups got an opportunity to not only directly interact with the investors and gain personalized insights but also gather business connects. The investors motivated them to focus on setting smarter goals and ensuring excellence in execution to achieve them. The investors also showed investment interest in few startups and further meetings have been set up between the investor and the start up to review progress and possibilities.

Objective of the event is to educate all the participants on various aspects of startups metrics that Investors look for were covered in workshop. Most of the founders struggle to raise funding. The most fundamental aspect of raising funds is pitching to the right investors the right way. Pitching to investors can be tricky as one often doesn't get multiple opportunities with the same investor and the decision to not invest is a lot faster for investors. Investors, on the other hand, are often flooded with many founders' emails/pitch decks and pitches. This makes the art of pitching even more crucial to learn. Investor terminology (CAC, CLC, ARRR, Pro rata rights, Vaporware, Bridge loan, Value Prop etc) were explained to the participants.

Objective of the event is to educate and help start ups on educating our inducted startups on understanding valuations, comparable methods, term sheet & angel tax. How to make a contract (SHA, Term sheet, Valuation sheet), how much to dilute, Nominal share valuation, what premium to issue equity on?, ESOPs, Negotiating the clauses in contacts were explained in detail.

iStart Rajasthan, in collaboration with MASH Project Foundation and UnLtd India, organized a Master class on Crowd-funding for non-profits and social enterprises on 18 September 2019 at Techno Hub, Jaipur. MASH Project Foundation is a social enterprise committed to building & empowering a global community of social change-makers and UnLtd India is a launchpad for early-stage social entrepreneurs to build high-impact organizations and grow as catalysts for social change. The Master class introduced select early-stage social entrepreneurs to the basic concepts and application of crowd-funding as a fundraising strategy and offered a space for participants to meet like-minded change makers.

iStart Rajasthan, in collaboration with the Indian Angels Network organised a one on one mentoring session on 17th September 2019 at Techno Hub, Jaipur by Digvijay Singh to assist select startups to understand investors perspective on their pitch decks. Digvijay singh is the Chief Operating Officer at Indian angels network , a professional with close to 20 years of experience in leading companies across sectors. This interaction provided them a variety of inputs, opportunities and resources that increases the chances of their success. the session was done as follow up to the perfect you pitch session to give startups an opportunity to have a fair feedback on their respective pitches before going in for the Demo day.

iStart Rajasthan, organized a series of Master classes on Perfecting your pitch on 16th September 2019 at Techno Hub, Jaipur by Sambhav Karnavat and Dhruv Gupta to help startups in understanding various types of pitches along with relevant case studies.. Sambhav is the founder of Jewelove is India’s first online retailer focussed on platinum jewellery working on a just-in-time model.In the session, Mr. Sambhav and Mr Dhruv briefed the startups on effective ways of connecting with the audience and putting across the value proposition and numbers.

As part of the iStart Rajasthan team’s constant endeavors to support and grow the startup ecosystem in Rajasthan, an interactive discussion was conducted between officials from Microsoft, Global Entrepreneurship Network India and incubation managers from various academic institutions and startup incubators of the state. Ms. Latika Pai, Country Head, Microsoft, Startups - MENA & SAARC regions, Ms. Jeeva Reddy, Director at Global Entrepreneurship Network India, Mr. Rajneesh Bhandari, RAIN, Mr. Amit Purohit, iStart Rajasthan and incubation managers from MNIT, CEERI, JECRC, Startup Oasis, Poornima Institute and Amity University participated in this interaction. Discussions in the session revolved around understanding the various initiatives presently being undertaken in Rajasthan to develop the startup ecosystem, the different programs run by Microsoft for startups and the various mechanisms through which Microsoft could partner with and help in the further growth of the startup ecosystem of the state.

Select startups under the iStart Rajasthan program were provided the opportunity to have a free-wheeling discussion with officials from Microsoft and Global Entrepreneurship Network India as part of the iStart Rajasthan team’s constant endeavors to support and facilitate the growth and development of startups. Ms. Latika Pai, Country Head, Microsoft, Startups - MENA & SAARC regions, Ms. Jeeva Reddy, Director at Global Entrepreneurship Network India, Mr. Amit Purohit, iStart Rajasthan and select startups under the program – Fleeca, ToRoots, Novlence, Hiretale, Hyrefox, Bodhi AI, Exambazaar, Noisy Tempo, Ardberry and Capacita Connect participated in the session. The session started off with Ms. Pai briefing the participant startups about the numerous different programs and initiatives that Microsoft has in place for the benefit of startups, followed by an interactive session where participant startups briefed the officials about their business ideas and discussed about how Microsoft and Global Entrepreneurship Network could help them scale up their startups further.

The objective of the Master class series was to run a series of workshops for four days to build capabilities of startup founders on multiple topics and apply the learning to effectively pitch to investors on the Demo Day. The Topics focused not only on creating awareness and enhancing knowledge on relevant topics like Perfect your Pitch, Investment terminology, Valuation tools and Due Diligence but also provided practical insights from founders of successful and evolved startups. This was followed by an Investor Connect on DEMO DAY where the startups would apply these learning and present pitches to investors.
● Building capabilities of startup founders on Creating and presenting a perfect pitch.
● Enhancing the knowledge and awareness of startup founders on Importance of Due Diligence and important aspects of Due Diligence.
● Enhancing the confidence of startup founders on using relevant tools , frameworks and methodologies to value their startups and effectively propose the terms during an investment
● The agenda was to establish the importance and relevance of measuring and improving these Metrics for increasing investor interest.

The IAS Association, Rajasthan, in association with iStart Rajasthan, conducted a book conversation with Shri. Sanjay Kumar, India Country Director of ‘The Lakshmi Mittal & Family South Institute’, Harvard University on his book ‘Katihar to Kennedy : The Road Less Travelled’ at the Techno Hub, Jaipur, on 31 August 2019. In the session, the author gave the audience an insights into his journey from a tiny town in Bihar, in one of India’s most economically backward districts, to one of the world’s leading institutions, the Harvard Kennedy School in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The author discussed about the lessons he learned – from failures as well as from moments of triumph and the contrasts he experienced while moving between cities, institutions, and job roles. The session was attended by a diverse audience comprising of government officials, industry leaders, students, startups and media personnel and was followed by a book signing event.

In continuation of Part I of the workshop on Design thinking by iStart named Empathize and Prototype, Dhaval Shah, conducted a Master class named (re)Define, Ideate and Deliver an Experience on August 29th, 2019 as Part II of the workshop on Design Thinking on August 2nd, 2019. Dhaval is a creative systems designer with the right mix of logical business reasoning, technical analysis, and human-centric design thinking.
Design Thinking is a process of problem solving that approaches complex scenarios with a creative mindset. The key to the success of this methodology is its focus on the needs of the business. Solutions perfectly in sync with business objectives can help achieve extraordinary results. Design Thinking utilizes empathetic, creative, innovative, and analytical skills to solve a problem. The process is driven by the end user’s needs and experience. Design Thinking employs an iterative model, repeating the feedback-modification cycle till an effective solution is found. Design Thinking is applicable to all walks of life, especially businesses. The outlook of using it optimally can turn it into a sustainable profit center. With customer behavior as the focal point, Design Thinking formulates evolutionary models of problem solving. During the Master class Dhaval focused on Ideation Techniques and designing a solution which can deliver a meaningful customer experience.