Mohali – Union Minister of Power, Housing and Urban Affairs, Manohar Lal Khattar, launched ‘Campus Tank Punjab’ , organised by Chandigarh University in collaboration with India's largest early talent hiring platform Apna and India’s leading early-stage investment firm Venture Catalysts (VCats), to strengthen India’s startup ecosystem by providing a one-stop solution for young innovators below 30 years of age to get seed funding and investment for their startups with a dedicated funding pool of US$ 6 million for transforming their Startup ideas into high-impact ventures.
The launch ceremony of Campus Tank Punjab was
attended by Manohar Lal Khattar, Union Minister of Power, Housing and Urban
Affairs, as the Chief Guest along with other dignitaries including Satnam Singh
Sandhu, Member of Parliament (Rajya Sabha) and Chancellor of Chandigarh
University, Deepinder Singh Sandhu, Senior Managing Director, Chandigarh
University, Dr Preet Deep Singh, Vice President, Apna, Vansh Oberoi, Chief
Investment Officer, Venture Catalysts and Deepinder Dhillon, Joint Director,
Startups, Punjab. The launch ceremony was also attended by Industry leaders, renowned
entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, acclaimed academicians, budding Startup
Founders from prominent educational institutions in several states
including Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, regional incubators, Hackathon
winners and founders of Startups incubated by the Chandigarh University.
Speaking at the inaugural ceremony, Union Minister
Khattar said,”Campus Tank is a big achievement not just in
India but also in the world because youngsters face problems in starting their
business ventures due to lack of support.
“But today times have changed because our Prime Minister Narendra Modi
understood this problem every youngster goes through after completing studies
and given push to entrepreneurship with the launch of schemes like Mudra
scheme. Today many facilities are available for youngsters (to start their
ventures). Still some youngsters don’t get the required opportunities. In this
context, Campus Tank is a very big initiative as it will benefit students of
23,000 eduactional institutions affiliated to AICTE. Over 19000 student
startups have already registered for getting benefit of the Campus Tank. US$ 6
million funding will be available for 300 startups which will be shortlisted
through Campus Tank,” he said.
“New ideas can come to
anyone. Newton discovered the law of gravity sitting below an apple tree. Sky
is the limit for startups because anyone, with minimum education, can build a
startup from anywhere be it a village of small town. Youngsters can make millions
of money by doing simple things through startups. You just need talent to move
ahead in this competitive world. Biggest of global companies were once a
startup. Be it Amazon started by a youngster from a car garage, Google started
from a room, Facebook started from a university campus. So small beginnings
lead to big achievements,” Khattar said.
The Union Minister
further said, “Our Prime Minister Narendra Modi has done so much work in the
past 11 years and today there are over 1.76 lakh startups out of which about
75,000 are women-led startups. Today we have over 115 Unicorns. Startups will
not just give employment to their founders but also to thousands of others.
Today’s job seekers will be tomorrow’s job creators. Your success will help in
the progress of the nation. PM Modi has given us the vision of a Viksit Bharat
by 2047 by competing in the world and everybody has a role to play in realising
this vision,”.
“Every
nation always faces some challenges, like we have been threatened with the
imposition of tariffs (by the US). We
should not bow before this threat. If we
work for our nation, it will progress. Such an atmosphere has been created in
the past 10 years that nobody can stop India from progressing ahead. Our nation will become a $5 trillion economy
in the next two years to become third biggest economy in the world. At present
we are fourth biggest economy behind China, America and Germany. At present there is little gap between India
and Germany. We have an economy of $ 4.19 trillion as compared to $ 4.52
trillion economy of Germany. But our growth rate is much higher than Germany.
So even as we are facing US tariffs, our economy is still growing at a rate of
7.8 %. At this rate, we will match Germany’s economy within a year and beat
them by next year by achieving an economy of $5 lakh trillion. This is our resolve and we will fulfill it
with you (youngsters),” he added.
In his address, Member of Parliament (Rajya
Sabha) and Chancellor of Chandigarh University, Satnam Singh Sandhu said, “PM
Modi ji had this vision that to make the country a developed nation and launched initiatives
like Startup India. Through such programs,
he not only understood the dreams of the youth but also provided funding to
fulfill those dreams. Today the result is in front of all of us as India has become a startup
hub. In 2014,
there were only 400 startups in India and when Modi became the Prime Minister,
the number of startups increased to over 1.76 lakh in
just 11 years.
India today is the 3rd largest startup ecosystem in the world with
consistent growth. These Startups have
not only registered over 12,000 patents but also created an estimated 17.6 lakh
direct jobs in various sectors as of June 2025, a figure that has significantly
increased from just a few hundred in 2014,”
he said.
Sandhu further said, “India
today has 119 unicorns including Paytm, upGrad, CRED who have created new job
opportunities. Therefore, the government is focusing on increasing the number
of unicorns in India, which will create the next generation of jobs, to 1,000
by 2035 and then take it further to 5,000. Startups have the potential to
become global companies in future top MNCs like Google, Apple, Amazon,
Microsoft, Meta (Facebook), Tesla and Uber which were also starups at some
point of time,”.
“For this, the government is taking the required
initiatives that prioritise technological advancement, ease of doing business
and entrepreneurs. The government has arranged funds for startups with a budget
of Rs 10 thousand crore and made a net commitment of Rs 9,994 crore h to 141
Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs) supported under the Fund of Funds for
Startups (FFS) scheme till June 2025. Now the aim is to make the nation
self-reliant when it comes to technology, be it cybersecurity, AI and operating
systems to defense tech, Deeptech or pharmaceuticals. India’s
startup ecosystem will have to play a key role to attain this PM’s
goal of tech autonomy for India. The government is supporting the startups in
every possible way and reducing the compliance burden for startups and MSMEs,
with the formation of a task force to bring in next-generation reforms,”
he added.
The Rajya Sabha Member Sandhu further said,
“Through initiatives like Campus
Tank, our aim is to play a role in nurturing this growth and empowering the
next generation of innovators. I am sure Campus Tank will act as a catalytic
force for igniting the entrepreneurial spirit among young innovators in the
country. Chandigarh University is playing its part in this by encouraging
students for innovating new technologies and unlocking opportunities for
growth. Ever since its inception in 2012, CU students have created over 150
Start-Ups. Chandigarh
University’s Technology Business
Incubator (CU-TBI), which secured number 1 rank among all scientific research
and development organizations in India by filing highest 1126 patent
applications in 2023-24, is mobilising Rs 5 Crore to catalyze growth in the
startup ecosystem at CU. Chandigarh
University was ranked among the top 5 institutions in filing the highest number
of patents in the last 5 years and secured 3rd Rank amongst all private and
government universities in India by filing 2581 patents in the last 3 years
alone,” .
The President of Young Progressive Sikh Forum, Dr
Prabhleen Singh said, "Till a decade ago, no one knew about
entrepreneurship, skill and startups, but after Narendra Modi ji became the
Prime Minister, entrepreneurship, skill and startups have been given so much
importance that today every person thinks about how he can provide employment
to someone else. No new work is easy but everything is possible for the youth
with the right guidance,”.
Vansh Oberoi, Chief Investment Officer, Venture
Catalysts, said, “If India has to achieve it’s $7 trillion economy dream, 15 to
20 % of that will be contributed by this (startups) sector which has already
expended beyond metros. Campus Tank is one of our biggest initiatives to
support this ambition,”
Preet Deep
Singh, Vice President, Apna said, "Campus Tank is all about nurturing
unconventional and independent-minded innovators who don't follow the beaten
path but instead explore new avenues to solve pressing problem in
society,”.
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