GIZ and CMIA dream up a winning platform for innovation in Aurangabad
Team YS
There are startup workshops and then are startup workshops. In a recent initiative by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), a German federal enterprise that strives towards international cooperation, and the Chamber of Marathwada Industries and Agriculture (CMIA) incubator Marathwada Accelerator for Growth & Incubation Centre (MAGIC), Startup Weekend was organised in Aurangabad to foster entrepreneurship and innovation in small towns of India.

The intention of the Startup Weekend was to lay the template for future engagement between academia and industry to foster entrepreneurship and innovation in small towns in India.
Attended by over 50 engineering graduates and aspiring entrepreneurs, the event successfully achieved in providing a starting point to those thinking of starting their own venture without moving to the metro cities like Mumbai, Delhi, or Bengaluru, where startup culture thrives.
“This was a good initiative,” said Pawan Rochwani, a participant who runs his own startup. “Usually, we have to travel to Mumbai or Pune to interact with entrepreneurs and mentors to network and understand the opportunities available to people like me,” he said.
Talking about Aurangabad, located in the Marathwada region of Maharashtra, President of CMIA Prasad Kokil said it was part of the ancient silk trade route that went all the way to Rome, adding that the region has entrepreneurship in its DNA. Noting that the culture of entrepreneurship had declined since then, Kokil said the CMIA has been able to reignite it in its 50 years of existence.