Bihar Entrepreneurship Summit next week will focus on connecting local start-ups with successful entrepreneurs and guiding women entrepreneurs.

Chief minister Nitish Kumar will inaugurate the summit's third session at Adhiveshan Bhavan on March 21. The industries department is organising the event in association with Bihar Entrepreneurship Association (BEA).

"The summit is in its third year and very important because the idea of start-ups is being recognised in the state and the country," Abhishek Singh, the secretary-general of BEA, told The Telegraph on Monday.

"Many people have been invited for the event. Among the invitees are Nalin Jain, the chief executive officer (transportation and aviation), GE-South Asia and Businessworld chairman Anurag Batra. The stress is on people who began as start-ups. As Bihar is taking its first lessons in start-up ideas, the presence of these dignitaries will be a guide for us," Singh added.

The other invitees to the event include Rahul Narvekar, the founder-CEO of shopping site Indianroots, Annu Grover, the co-founder of Nurturing Green involved in plant decoration, Pranay Gupta, the co-founder of 91Springboard, one of the biggest incubation centres in the country, and Ritesh Malik, a founder member of Innov8, a firm that provides mentorship and co-working space for aspiring ideas. Biz Divas (that mentors and invests in promising women entrepreneurs) core committee member Shilpi Singh, Sheroes.in founder Sairee Chahal and founder-CEO of HelloMeets Sabah Sethi have also been requested to attend the summit.

An industries department source said a technical session on the development of women entrepreneurs has been planned for the summit. In the run-up to next week, BEA will organise several workshops from Tuesday for the local start-ups that will interact with the invitees.

Singh said: "We have been holding several activities since last year in association with the industries department. More such activities will follow from March 15, including 'Internet of things', a training-cum-workshop, 'Designing a minimum viable product', 'The art of pitching an idea' and 'Walk the Talk' around the Gandhi Maidan. The idea is to generate interest among the people."

Last year, the entrepreneurship summit focused on inviting people to Bihar to set up their units but this time around, it is concentrating on investments. "The idea of start-ups has found its place in Bihar and people have come forward too and set up their firms here," Singh said. "We have many people who have left lucrative jobs to return to give their innovative ideas a platform. The state, too, has come forward to help them and has created a venture capital fund of Rs 500 crore. With the government's start-up policy to be formally floated next month, developing local start-ups is the key to the summit."

"I see a lot of young and successful people, who began as start-ups, coming to the event. This will help us a lot as we can interact with them to get useful tips and guidance towards developing our own ventures," Ritesh Choudhary, the founder of Homezifi.com, an e-commerce venture for household services, said.