Proposed Agenda for AIM SUMVAAD

Date: 3rd February, 2026, Tuesday

Venue: Dr Ambedkar International Centre, New Delhi

Tentative Timings	Session	Dignitaries / Speakers	Description of the Session
9:00 AM - 9:45 AM	Registration	-	Registrations and Tea Break
09:45 AM - 11:00 AM	Inauguration Ceremony of AIM SUMVAAD	Shri Suman Bery, VC, NITI Aayog Prof. Ajay Sood, PSA, Govt of India Shri B. V. R. Subrahmanyam, CEO, NITI Aayog Dr. Rajesh S. Gokhale, Secretary, Department of Biotechnology Angela Lusigi, RR, UNDP, India Shri Deepak Bagla, Mission Director, Atal Innovation Mission Shri Abhishek Singh, Additional Secretary, MeitY	Celebration of 100+ AIM Incubators Launch of Youth Co:Lab National Innovation Challenge 2026
11:00 AM - 12:00 PM	Session 1: Trailblazer Sessions	Shri Abhishek Singh, Additional Secretary, MeiTY Manoj Meena - Founder & CEO at ATOMBERG Dr. Renuka Diwan, Founder at Bio Prime Vishesh Rajaram, Co-founder and Managing Partner at Speciale Invest	11:00 AM - 11:10 AM Trailblazer 1: AI powering India’s future 11:15 AM - 11:25 AM Trailblazer 2: Startup Perspectives 11:30 AM - 11:40 AM Trailblazer 3: Startup Perspectives 11:45 AM - 11:55 AM Trailblazer 4: VC Perspectives
12:00 PM - 12:45 PM	Session 2: Government support through various stages of incubator journey	Moderator: Poyni Bhatt Panelists: Manish Diwan, BIRAC Praveen Roy, DST Dr. Shivkumar Kalyanaraman, ANRF Dr. Chhaya Chauhan, BIRAC Pramit Dash, Atal Innovation Mission	Overview of Technology Readiness Levels (TRL) support mechanisms across Indian government schemes and their mapping to different maturity stages from proof-of-concept to market deployment for incubators, along with the way ahead.
12:45 PM - 1:45 PM	LUNCH	-	-
1:45 PM - 2:30 PM	Session 3: Incubators as Technology Transfer Organisations (Research to Revenue)	Speaker 1: Nikhil Agarwal, FITT, IIT Delhi Speaker 2: Sourav Roy, Tata Steel Foundation Speaker 3: Prof. Ashok Jhunjhunwala, IIT Madras	Exploration of incubators’ evolving role as Technology Transfer Organisations, bridging research institutions to revenue generation through commercialization, IP management, and startup scaling.
2:30 PM - 3:15 PM	Session 4: Language and Cultural Dimension in Innovation Ecosystem	Moderator: Dr. Chintan Vaishnav Panelists: Dr. Balasubramaniam (Balu), Capacity Building Commission Huda Jaffer, SELCO Foundation Jiren Topno, Tata Steel Foundation Shraddha Sharma, Your Story	Examination of how language diversity and cultural contexts shape and accelerate innovation ecosystems and entrepreneurship in India.
3:15 PM - 3:45 PM	Key Note address on – India’s strategic future plan in innovation	Dr. Jitendra Singh, Minister of State (Independent Charge) of Science & Technology Shri Deepak Bagla, MD, AIM Dr. Jitendra Kumar, MD BIRAC Praveen Roy, DST Dr. Prasad Menon, President, ISBA	Announcement of National Incubator Assessment Framework Indicators Announcement of National Incubation Awards
4:00 PM - 4:15 PM	Session 5: Nurturing startups in the era of AI	Sravanth Aluru, Avataar.ai	Strategies for nurturing and scaling startups in the AI era, addressing talent development, ethical AI integration
4:15 PM - 4:30 PM	Session 6: Deep dive into Venture Capitalist mindset	Ashish Dhawan, Founder and CEO of the Convergence Foundation (TCF)	Get inside the head of a top-tier VC: learn how they evaluate founders, size opportunities, assess risk, and decide where to write million-dollar cheques in under 10 minutes.
4:30 PM - 5:15 PM	Session 7: Fireside Chat with Mission Director, Atal Innovation Mission	Sanjeev Bikhchandani, Founder Info Edge	How India can truly shape its innovation story by shifting from imitation to original creation through bold R&D investment, deep-tech focus, inclusive talent nurturing, and impact-driven global leadership.
5:15 PM - 6:00 PM	Networking Hi-Tea	Networking Session	-