i-Hub Gujarat Hosts Hon’ble Odisha Minister and Higher Education Delegation
On 10th August 2026, i-Hub Gujarat hosted the visit of 𝐇𝐨𝐧’𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐒𝐡𝐫𝐢 Suryabanshi Suraj 𝐌𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐟 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐞 (𝐈𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐠𝐞), 𝐇𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐄𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧, 𝐒𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐬 & 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐡 𝐒𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐢𝐜𝐞𝐬, 𝐎𝐝𝐢𝐚 𝐋𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐮𝐚𝐠𝐞, 𝐋𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 & 𝐂𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞, Government of Odisha, along with Authorities from Higher Education Department and Vice Chancellors from Universities.
A roundtable discussion was held with the Odisha delegation, i-Hub Gujarat leadership and 𝟐𝟎+ 𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐮𝐩𝐬 working across agriculture, edtech, healthtech, fintech and other sectors.
The i-Hub Gujarat leadership provided an overview of Gujarat’s startup and innovation ecosystem, including the Student Startup & Innovation Policy (SSIP) and its hub-and-spoke model, through which innovation and pre-incubation support is developed at institutes and universities, with i-Hub Gujarat serving as the central hub.
The discussion further covered key aspects of the Mind-to-Market journey, including grant assistance, mentorship, capacity-building initiatives, intellectual property and patent support, regulatory and advisory services, access to funding opportunities, networking and co-working infrastructure.
The Odisha delegation further interacted with participating innovators, who presented their solutions and demonstrated their products. The delegation also visited the co-working facility and engaged with startups operating from the space.
The visit also included discussions on inter-state collaboration, joint programs and hackathons, along with opportunities for student and faculty visits from government universities in Odisha to gain first-hand exposure to Gujarat’s startup ecosystem.
𝐃𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐠𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐎𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐚 𝐕𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐝:
Shri Aravind Agrawal Commissioner-cumSecretary, Higher Education Department
Shri Sampad Dalei OSD to Hon’ble Minister
Prof. Shyam Sundar Pattnaik Vice-Chancellor, Odisha State Open University
Prof. Santosh Kumar Tripathy Vice-Chancellor, Fakir Mohan University
Prof. (Dr.) Chandi Prasad Nanda, Utkal University
Smt. Prativa Sahu Additional Secretary, Higher Education Department
Smt. Mousumi Nayak Joint Secretary, Higher Education Department
Smt. Dr. Rupsa Mahapatra Assistant Professor, Higher Education Department
Sri Dr. Aurobindo Das Assistant Professor, Higher Education Department
