Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Startup Forum 2023

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About SCO Startup Forum 2023:

The engagement aimed at expanding the startup interactions amongst the SCO Member States, nurturing the spirit of innovation, generating more employment and encouraging young talent to build innovative solutions.
The forum witnessed physical participation from SCO Member States including a delegation of government officials, private industry players, incubators and startups.
This engagement focused on the spirit of collaboration and entrepreneurship.
It aimed at promoting innovation development, particularly through the creation of common platforms and the facilitation of ideas and best practices among the SCO Member States.
Various startup-to-startup bilateral meetings were conducted in promoting and achieving this agenda.
In addition, the delegates also attended a workshop conducted by Startup India on the ‘Role of Bilateral and Multilateral Engagements in developing startup ecosystem’.
The workshop included an interactive session to understand various models of engagements that can be undertaken to develop closer ties between these nations and boost the startup ecosystem in SCO nations.
Previously, Startup India had organized various initiatives for SCO Member states including:
- SCO Startup Forum 2020: The SCO Startup Forum laid the foundation for multilateral cooperation and engagement for startups among the SCO Member States.
- SCO Startup Forum 2021: The two-day Forum was held virtually through a customized platform representing the Indian culture in augmented reality. SCO Startup Hub, a single point of contact for the SCO startup ecosystem, was launched in this forum.
- Focused Mentorship Program: A 3-month long virtual mentorship series ‘Starting-Up’ was organized for the nominated startups, to build capacity among the SCO Startup founders.

Q1) What is the Aspire scheme?

A Scheme for Promotion of Innovation, Rural Industries and Entrepreneurship (ASPIRE) aids to set up a network of technology centres and to set up incubation centres to accelerate entrepreneurship and also to promote startups for innovation in agro-industry.

Source: Third edition of the SCO Startup Forum to foster innovation and global engagements for startups in SCO Member States