Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his Independence Day speech had announced a new campaign 'Start-up India, Stand up India' to encourage entrepreneurship among the youth of the country. Addressing the nation from the Red Fort, he said, "We are looking at systems for enabling start-ups. We must be number one in startups ..." All this sounds encouraging. It seems the start-up ecosystem - which has always been ignored - is now on the top agenda of the policy makers. The system is realizing that it is the entrepreneur, which can create jobs and take the growth to new levels. If I may say, the success of America is majorly because of the entrepreneurship attitude and capabilities of its citizens. The road to building a start-up in India is filled with hurdles. Today, there is no dearth of entrepreneurship minded people in the country, but lack of a proper ecosystem often puts our wannabe entrepreneurs on the back foot. First of all, access to capital is the biggest challenge. We still have to rely on traditional bank financing, but its lack of availability and high interest costs are potent enough to cripple our entrepreneurial dreams. In addition, with no formal mechanism, our start-ups hardly get mentoring support. Hiring of skilled manpower poses another hurdle as start-ups lack financial muscles to match the salaries offered by larger companies. I am sure that all these factors will be scrutinized and looked into. Digital India is another initiative launched at the Facebook Headquarters. Prime Minister understands the significance of going digital and the immense utility that it carries with it. All this certainly indicates that the focus is on the youth and hence, dare I say that our own Exhibition Industry also must innovate and evolve to generate mass interest among the youth. This can only happen when we take our industry and its knowledge to the youth and propel them to utilize its power. In this issue we bring together a collage of issues relating to the exhibition industry. It's an interesting mix of articles that will keep our readers absorbed all through. There are interesting bits on the latest developments in the Indian and Global Exhibition market. On popular demand we have made the calendar of events section much more comprehensive and elaborate. We are also back with the Active jobs in the Industry section. And need I say that I love to hear your comments at edit@exhibitionshowcase.com.
Happy Reading !!
Editor-in-chief