Delhi Education Minister Ashish Sood announced the Delhi Startup Policy 2025 at the Delhi Startup Yuva Festival, unveiling a Rs. 350 crore, five-year plan to back student entrepreneurs with equity-free seed funding, mentorship, investor access and expanded incubation targeting 5,000 startups by 2035, thereby positioning the national capital as a serious contender to become India's startup capital.
The vibrant Delhi Startup Yuva Festival 2026 at the Dr. Ambedkar International Centre, is organized by the Directorate of Training and Technical Education under the Government of NCT of Delhi, transforming the venue into a bustling hub of innovation, drawing more than 20,000 students from government schools, universities, colleges, and Industrial Training Institutes.
With over 470 startups currently under incubation across Delhi's public institutions, the festival served as both a celebration of student creativity and a platform to launch a unified, long-term ecosystem for turning campus ideas into market-ready ventures.
In his keynote address, Minister Sood outlined the contours of the proposed policy, which is currently undergoing consultations with stakeholders to ensure it delivers sustained support rather than remaining a one-time initiative. The Delhi Startup Policy 2025 envisions a dedicated budget of Rs. 350 crore over the next five years, earmarked for equity-free seed grants, structured mentorship programs, investor matchmaking, and expanded incubation linkages. Central to the framework is the creation of a Delhi Student Seed Fund that will provide early-stage capital without demanding equity from founders, alongside deep industry collaborations to bridge the gap between academic innovation and commercial viability. Sood set an ambitious target: enabling and supporting 5,000 startups by 2035, an effort he described as integral to realizing Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of Viksit Bharat 2047 under the guiding mantra of "Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas."
The minister emphasized that the festival itself marks a decisive shift away from fragmented efforts. Previously, universities, colleges, and ITIs often worked in isolation, leaving talented students disconnected from mentorship, funding, and markets. Today, he said, the Delhi Startup Yuva Festival answers that gap by institutionalizing the entire journey-from idea generation on campus through government-supported incubation and industry guidance to the creation of market-ready enterprises. "This is not just giving a stage; we are building a system where ideas, mentors, funding, and markets will meet under one roof," Sood declared. "Campus to market. Now, this will not be just a slogan."
The policy announcement was accompanied by immediate action on the ground. From more than 750 applications received across Delhi, the government selected winners after three rigorous rounds of evaluation. Six top startups were awarded equity-free seed grants of Rs. 10 lakh each, while the top 100 received Rs. 1 lakh apiece. Sood highlighted that the department has already disbursed Rs. 10 crore in seed capital to 5,000 student teams from government schools, providing Rs. 20,000 per team to help ideas take root. He also confirmed that the Delhi Startup Yuva Festival will now become an annual event, ensuring continuity and momentum. "We are not just talking; we are directly helping your bank accounts," he told the young innovators.
The auditorium and adjacent halls came alive with more than 100 stalls showcasing student-led prototypes and early-stage ventures. Visitors moved through dedicated zones focused on HealthTech, sustainability, disaster resilience, AgriTech, and more, where incubators from institutions such as Delhi Technological University, Lady Shri Ram College for Women, Netaji Subhas University of Technology, Ambedkar University, and various ITIs presented live demonstrations and pitch sessions. Industry mentors and investors circulated freely, offering real-time feedback and conducting speed-pitching rounds in dedicated networking corners.
Among the standout ideas was "Jatayu" by Vektor Dynamics, a disaster management startup that leverages an app and website for real-time detection-even in areas without network connectivity and deploys UAVs for rapid survey and assistance.
Final-year engineering student Soumya from Delhi Technological University (DTU) explained that the solution targets the critical problem of delayed response in remote regions, where timely intervention can save lives during floods, earthquakes, and other crises. Soumya highlighted how the team has developed a lightweight system to address the growing challenges in disaster scenarios. "We have made a system to solve [increasing disaster response cases]. Our app, within 500 KB, uses phone sensors like gyroscope and barometer to detect falls and disasters in real time," Soumya told NDTV, emphasizing the innovation's ability to provide immediate alerts using everyday smartphone capabilities.
It was further noted that in the chaotic early hours of a disaster, critical location data is often unavailable. "When disaster happens, we don't have location coordinates. In three hours, we don't know what has happened. Our app generates an alert, runs a 7-second timer, and maps your current location-even during communication blackouts," the founder stated, underscoring the app's resilience in offline and blackout conditions-a key advantage over traditional systems.
Soumya described the project's structured approach, incorporating AI-enhanced drones for casualty assessment. "Our project is in three phases... We use our own AI models with normal and thermal cameras on drones to detect casualties, and categorize them as severe, intermediate, or minor," Soumya shared, detailing how drone-based triage prioritizes aid delivery drawing from proven models.
The team's credibility was highlighted through their competitive track record. "We are second in India for two consecutive years in the DARPA Triage Challenge. We took that casualty analysis model and made it here for real-world disaster response," Soumya proudly conveyed, referencing UAS-DTU's recent second-place finish as the foundation for adapting advanced AI to Indian disaster contexts.
Another highlight was FlushSHE, a women-led venture that has developed India's first fully flushable, biodegradable sanitary pad made from plant-based, water-dispersible materials. After use, the pad disintegrates naturally, eliminating plastic waste, landfill burden, and the discomfort associated with disposal-particularly in rural areas and public spaces. The founder described the product as a step toward true zero-waste menstrual care.
In the HealthTech space, Sripriya Agarwal presented Drishti Raksha which is an AI-powered diagnostic tool for early detection of Diabetic Retinopathy, a leading cause of blindness among India's 10 crore diabetic population. The deep learning model classifies severity across five stages using retinal fundus images and connects doctors and patients through dashboards that include personalized diet and medication recommendations powered by advanced AI. Agarwal noted the solution's potential to overcome specialist shortages and diagnostic delays in rural areas. "L"In a country with so many diabetics, why let blindness win when AI can diagnose in minutes? We're bridging urban-rural gaps, and the mentorship here at Yuva startup festival has turned our prototype into a scalable solution."