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News: The Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) launched the 6th Edition of the National Startup Awards on 27 October 2026.
About National Startup Awards 6.0
- It is a flagship initiative under Startup India Initiative.
- It recognizes startups for innovation, scalability, sustainability and socio-economic impact.
- Launched by: It is launched by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
- Origin:
- Startup India: It was launched in January 2016 to build a strong, inclusive and innovation-driven entrepreneurial ecosystem.
- National Startup Awards: The awards began in 2019 to recognize entrepreneurial excellence and showcase innovative solutions.
- Evaluation Process: Applications undergo multi-stage evaluation, including eligibility and compliance screening, sectoral evaluation, shortlisting, a pitching event and final evaluation by a National Jury Panel.
- Institutional Participation: The process involves Ministries, incubators, Alternative Investment Funds (AIFs), banks and financial institutions.
- The National Jury Panel includes government, industry and domain experts.
- National Startup Awards 6.0 Categories:
- Sectoral categories: The awards cover 20 sectoral categories.
- Special categories: The awards include 3 special categories:
- Women-Led Startup of the Year
- North-East Startup Excellence
- Student Innovator / Aspiring Entrepreneur Award
- Key Features:
- New categories: This edition introduces 12 new sectoral categories, including Biomanufacturing, Defence & Security and Space-Tech.
- Student award: It promotes entrepreneurship among school and college students across all 36 States and Union Territories.
- Prize Money: Winners in the 20 sectoral categories and two startup-focused special categories are eligible for ₹25 lakh per category, subject to applicable guidelines.
- The student award carries a total prize pool of ₹25 lakh across four sub-categories.
- Inclusive outreach: DPIIT encourages participation from Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities and engages governments, incubators, academic institutions and financial institutions.
