ISUW 2026 Speaker

Former Head - CEST, Department of Science and Technology (DST)

Dr Anita Gupta, an administrator by profession with over 20 years of experience in managing Govt. of India led programs on innovation and Entrepreneurship. She is the Former Head of Innovation and Entrepreneurship in the Department of Science and Technology. She has played a pioneering role in steering the horizontal and vertical growth of innovation, entrepreneurship and startups in the country. She has been a lead catalyst in establishing over 100 technology business incubators at Institutions of academic excellence including IITs, IIMs, NITs and leading private universities. She has also been instrumental in carving out of a new umbrella initiative NIDHI, National Initiative for Developing and Harnessing Innovations under Prime Minister's National Initiative of Startup India. She is deeply involved in transforming the Indian innovation landscape by engaging new models of Public Private Partnerships with leading MNCs i.e Intel, Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Texas Instruments, Tatas and the Bennett Coleman and Co etc. She is driving the key program on Innovation i.e India Innovation Growth Program, Power of Ideas and Innovate for Digital India. At national level, she possess the enriching blend of experience in promoting not only the startups based on technologies of excellence but also in empowerment of the society through nurturing micro-enterprises based on technologies of relevance.