Aavishkaar Foundation and Intellecap announce the 2nd Edition of the Sankalp Bharat Summit 2025, to be held on 12 December 2025 at Clarks Avadh, Lucknow. Designed as the largest celebration of Bharat’s innovators and changemakers, the Summit is expected to convene 600+ delegates, including 120+ business and global leaders, 300+ entrepreneurs, 100+ investors, policymakers, multilateral agencies, and development finance institutions.
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 represents this shift — a state and a region where climate-tech, circularity, cultural industries, and youth-led enterprises are rewriting what growth can look like. Sankalp Bharat is designed as a platform where promising entrepreneurs can meet capital, markets, and policy directly — ensuring the next wave of solutions is not just innovative but deeply rooted in Bharat’s realities.”
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 said, “Sankalp Bharat is not just about celebrating entrepreneurs—it is about reimagining the very foundation of India’s growth story. When we speak of Viksit Bharat, we must recognize that its future will not be built only in the metros, but in the resilience and creativity of Bharat’s heartland. We are creating a platform for enterprises that are deeply rooted in community and identity. This summit is about channeling capital, ideas, and networks into places that have long been overlooked, ensuring that the vision of Viksit Bharat is inclusive, sustainable, and driven by homegrown innovation. The entrepreneurs we spotlight here are not just building companies—they are building the future of India.”
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.
