Convening slated to be the largest celebration of homegrown innovators from India’s heartland
28 November 2025: Aavishkaar Foundation
This year’s theme, “Roots of Resilience: Building Bharat’s Enterprise Engine,” places the spotlight on enterprises emerging from India’s Tier II & III cities and cultural economies. The Summit will explore the next decade of entrepreneurship through a grounded lens of climate adaptation, circular manufacturing, AI for inclusion, frontier technologies, agri-value chain resilience, blended finance, and women-led enterprise growth.
“The centre of gravity of India’s entrepreneurship is shifting,” said Syna Dehnugara, Director – Sankalp Forum, Intellecap. “Lucknow
Sankalp Bharat 2025 will feature a series of high-impact thematic tracks designed to drive actionable outcomes across India’s most critical sectors. These include climate-tech and decarbonisation pathways for SMEs; agri-tech innovations shaping the future of Uttar Pradesh’s value chains; circular textile solutions to strengthen India’s global export competitiveness; and AI, skilling, and the future of work for a rapidly transforming economy.
The Summit will also spotlight cultural and creative enterprises and at the heart of the convening is The Bharat Exchange, a curated marketplace where entrepreneurs engage directly with investors, corporates, philanthropies, and government buyers. Complementing this is the ASCEND Pitching Competition and the Climate Deal Room featuring climate and frontier-tech enterprises, enabling real-time investment conversations and catalysing partnerships that can scale across India.
At the Summit, Aavishkaar Foundation will host its flagship initiative, ‘Economic Entrepreneurship to Social Equity’, designed to spark entrepreneurial curiosity among young people and strengthen the grassroots startup ecosystem in Uttar Pradesh. The initiative includes two focused programs:
• Youth Entrepreneurship Program: A business challenge for government schools and colleges across 22 districts, encouraging students to imagine real solutions for their communities.
• Entrepreneur-Investing Program: A platform that identifies and rewards high-potential regional startups.
Together, these programs will bring some of UP’s most promising young innovators and early-stage entrepreneurs to the Sankalp stage, showcasing ideas rooted in local needs and built for scalable impact.
As Vineet Rai, Founder, Aavishkaar Group
The Summit will also feature the Sankalp Bharat Awards 2025, which recognise outstanding early-stage innovators across climate-tech, agri-tech, circularity, AI for impact, and cultural enterprises. This year’s awards will be evaluated by a jury comprising of D K Mittal, Chairman, Arohan and Former Secretary, DFS, Meenakshi Ramesh, CEO (D), Pratham Education Foundation, U K Sinha, Former Chairperson, SEBI and Chairman, Aavishkaar Group and Matsumoto Katsuo, Vice President, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
The jury will assess enterprises on innovation, scalability, inclusion, climate and livelihood impact, and long-term sustainability. The winners will be announced at a special ceremony on 12 December, spotlighting the next generation of entrepreneurs shaping India’s development story.
The Summit is supported by a strong network of Knowledge Partners including British International Investment (BII), NICEorg, Acumen, Innovation Hub UP, International Solar Alliance (ISA), and ecosystem partners such as Upaya Social Ventures, IIM-A Ventures, IIM-CIP, NSRCEL–IIMB, IITM Research Park, Climate Collective, ICC, Technoserve, , Easy Knowledge Club, The Capital Room, and others.
Join us as we seamlessly blend tradition with innovation, reflection with action, and art with impact, paving the way for a brighter and more sustainable future. Don’t miss the chance to be part of this extraordinary journey and make a lasting difference. To Attend the Summit – Click Here
About Sankalp Forum:
Sankalp Forum was initiated in India in 2009 by Intellecap, part of the Aavishkaar Group, to create a thriving ecosystem for business-led inclusive development. Over the past 16 years, Sankalp has built one of the world’s largest impact enterprise focused platforms that has showcased and discovered 2780+ entrepreneurs, through 34 editions and has connected them to 1500+ investors. Sankalp has enabled enterprises and entrepreneurs and has helped raise over USD 800 million in funding and disbursed over USD 1.3 million in cash grants. Sankalp Forum engages with Governments, Corporations, influential platforms like the G8 and G20, media and civil society to drive a paradigm shift in inclusive development approaches. For more details please visit, www.sankalpforum.com
