Jamshedpur : Jharkhand’s innovation spirit shone bright at Startup Mahakumbh 2024, held from April 3 to 5 at Bharat Mandapam, New Delhi.
Shyam Murmu and Varsha Mario Kachhap, both members of the Tribal Design Forum, proudly represented the state after being selected by the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, Government of India, for participation in the world’s largest startup and innovation showcase.
More than 3,000 startups from across India and abroad gathered for the event, which featured a special spotlight on tribal entrepreneurs through the Dharti Aaba Birsa Munda Tribepreneur Pavilion.
The pavilion showcased over 40 tribal-led startups, with eight dynamic entrepreneurs representing Jharkhand.
Among them were Gunjal Ikir Munda and Shivnath Munda from Rumbul and Bir Bitar, Aseem Kandulna of ASR Metallurgy (Jamshedpur), Aruna Tirkey of Ajam Emba—a venture promoting traditional tribal cuisine, Hercules Singh Munda of the ed-tech platform Trilingo, and Suresh Murmu of the Marshall Primary Weaver Cooperative Society.
Shyam Murmu, hailing from Ghatsila, presented Galang—an augmented reality-based cultural tourism model designed for tribal communities.
Highlighting the vast ₹30,000 crore experiential tourism market in India, Murmu emphasized the urgent need for tribal inclusion in this space.
He positioned Galang as a tool for building a circular economy that promotes cultural preservation, environmental sustainability, and local economic empowerment through community-led tourism enhanced by AR technology.
On the tech-forward front, Varsha Mario Kachhap introduced Tribalverse, a metaverse platform showcasing tribal art.
The platform merges digital innovation with cultural heritage, allowing users to explore and purchase indigenous art via AR/VR experiences, available as NFTs or in physical form.
Murmu shared that their creative brochures and bookmarks drew strong interest at the event. “Three investors expressed informal interest in Galang, and several academic institutions showed keen intent to collaborate,” he said.
The enthusiastic participation of Jharkhand’s tribal innovators at Startup Mahakumbh 2024 marks a proud and promising chapter in spotlighting indigenous entrepreneurship on the national stage.
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