New Delhi: The Delhi government on Friday launched the Delhi Startup Yuva Festival 2026 at the Netaji Subhas University of Technology (NSUT), reaffirming its vision to position the national capital as India’s Startup Capital and strengthen student-led entrepreneurship.
Addressing students, mentors, industry leaders and academicians, Education Minister Ashish Sood said institutions like NSUT are “not merely centres of academic learning, but powerful hubs of innovation and nation-building”. He described students as “the architects of Viksit Bharat” and said the festival marks the beginning of a transformative “campus-to-market movement”.
Highlighting India’s startup growth, Sood said that before 2014, the country had only three unicorns and a limited ecosystem. “Today, India has nearly 125 unicorns with a combined valuation of over USD 366 billion and more than 1.97 lakh DPIIT-recognised startups, making it the third-largest startup ecosystem in the world,” he said, attributing the shift to “policy action under the visionary leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi”.
Emphasising inclusion, the minister said, “Nearly 45 per cent of Indian startups are led by women. When a daughter of India starts a startup, she doesn’t just change her own life, she changes the destiny of her family and her community.”
Sood said the Delhi government, under Chief Minister Rekha Gupta, is working to make Delhi the capital of student innovation. He added that the Startup Yuva Festival will evolve into a flagship annual platform bringing together universities, IITs, mentors, investors and
industry leaders.
He informed that over 75,000 students are currently engaged in Delhi government-supported entrepreneurship programmes, with more than 470 startups being incubated across sectors such as healthcare, sustainability and manufacturing. These startups collectively generate revenues of Rs.500–600 crore.
Announcing the proposed Delhi Startup Policy 2025, Sood said it envisages an outlay of Rs.325 crore over five years to support 5,000 startups by 2035. “We are setting up a Delhi Student Seed Fund so that promising ideas do not fail due to lack of early-stage support,” he said.
Under the scheme, equity-free grants of Rs.10 lakh will be given to the top six startups and Rs.1 lakh to the top 100 student startups. “India’s next unicorn can emerge from a hostel room, a lab or a campus like NSUT,” Sood added.