Jagriti Yatra: KSUM greets world's largest train journey of entrepreneurs
Kochi / November 10, 2025
Kochi, Nov 10: As Jagriti Yatra reached the city today bearing its reputation as the world's largest train journey of entrepreneurs, Kerala Startup Mission (KSUM) accorded a reception to the passengers comprising 525 young socio-economic change-makers from across the country and beyond.
This was the first time in its 18-year history the annual Jagriti Yatra’s passengers visited Kochi. The cross-country journey, typically, starts from Mumbai and travels over 8,000 km through various places and halting in 12 centres before returning to its city of origin amid its 15-day schedule.
At Kerala’s commercial capital today, KSUM CEO Anoop Ambika addressed the Yatra on behalf of the state’s startup sector. The event, at KSUM’s Digital Hub in suburban Kalamassery, saw an interaction between Jagriti Yatra board member Sunil Pangarkar and Anoop.
The CEO, while explaining how Kerala has become the country’s most vibrant startup ecosystem, gave a presentation of the schemes that enjoy support from the state and central governments for the sector.
Revealing that Kerala today 7,500-plus startups, the CEO said the state was now focused on deep-tech and product development from the service sector. “Our potential in the deep-tech sector is endless,” he noted. “We can next focus on traditional industries such as ports, space, healthcare, creative economy and renewable energy.”
Pangarkar described the KSUM’s work as “exemplary”, hailing its world-class infrastructure is a “testament to the importance Kerala gives to the startup sector”.
Jagriti Yatra CEO Ashutosh Kumar said the visit to KSUM gave the team an opportunity for the passengers to see how innovation is shaping the country’s future. “KSUM shows how the right ecosystem can turn ideas into impactful enterprises,” he added.
The 2025 journey reached Kochi from Hubballi in Karnataka. From Kochi, it will go to Madurai, Sri City (near Tirupati), Visakhapatnam, Baharampur (Odisha), Nalanda, Deoria (Uttar Pradesh), Delhi, Jaipur and Ahmedabad before reaching back Mumbai.
The first edition of the Yatra was flagged off in 2008. Since then, Jagriti Yatra has inspired more than 9,000 yongsters to enter entrepreneurship, thereby lead the country's transformation. As much as 28 per cent of its alumni went on to become entrepreneurs in sectors such as education, health, sustainability and technology.
KSUM is the nodal agency of the Kerala government for entrepreneurship development and incubation activities in the state.
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