Jharkhand, Sep 2: In a major push to take grassroots innovation from Jharkhand to the national startup ecosystem, the Jharkhand Entrepreneurs Association (JEA) on Wednesday signed a three-year Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with JSS Science & Technology Entrepreneurs Park (JSS STEP), Noida.
The agreement was signed at the JSS STEP campus in Sector-62, Noida, by JEA Chairman Sumit Kumar and JSS STEP CEO Dr Satyendra Patnaik.
The partnership aims to establish a direct corridor between Jharkhand’s grassroots innovators and the Delhi-NCR startup ecosystem, with a special focus on tribal entrepreneurs and student-led deep-tech startups.
Under the agreement, high-potential startups from Jharkhand will gain access to JSS STEP’s network of more than 200 industry mentors, investor connections, prototyping infrastructure and the Delhi-NCR market. In return, startups incubated at JSS STEP will get access to opportunities and networks across Eastern India through JEA.
As the first flagship initiative, the two organisations will jointly host a startup cohort and acceleration programme aimed at providing mentorship, product refinement, market-readiness support and investor access to emerging startups.
The collaboration will also cover entrepreneurship development programmes, joint hackathons, innovation challenges and knowledge exchange on startup ecosystem practices. The organisations will further coordinate with state and central government departments to facilitate capital and regulatory support for startups.
In a significant development, Dr Patnaik has also joined the JEA Advisory Council as Chief Council. His experience is expected to contribute to JEA’s incubation architecture, startup cohort design and strategy for integrating Jharkhand’s innovators with the national ecosystem.
“Jharkhand’s innovators have never lacked ideas — they have lacked bridges,” Kumar said, adding that the partnership had built a bridge “straight from the grassroots of Jharkhand to the heart of India’s startup ecosystem.”
“Our tribal innovators and deep-tech founders now have a national runway,” he said, adding that the objective was to skill youth “not to seek jobs, but to create them.”
Dr Patnaik said India’s next generation of entrepreneurs would emerge from smaller cities and untapped regions. “JEA is building one of the most sincere, execution-driven ecosystems I have seen in Eastern India,” he said.
“Together we will take Jharkhand’s root-level innovation to the national stage,” Patnaik added.
JSS STEP, which has been operating since 2001, has incubated more than 150 startups in areas including deep-tech, SaaS and healthtech. JEA, established in 2018, has a community of over 2,000 members and institutional partnerships, including with ACIC IIT (ISM) Dhanbad.
The MoU marks an effort to connect innovation emerging from Jharkhand’s tribal belts, mining towns and smaller cities with national markets, investors and mentorship networks.
