{
  "id": 10601536,
  "title": "Piyush Goyal to headline ET Startup Awards",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/29/piyush-goyal-to-headline-et-startup-awards",
  "topic": "business",
  "section": "Business",
  "published": "2026-09-29T00:30:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "The Economic Times",
    "slug": "the-economic-times",
    "url": "https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/tech/startups/piyush-goyal-to-be-guest-of-honour-at-et-startup-awards-2026/articleshow/134549492.cms"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal will grace the 12th annual Economic Times Startup Awards ceremony in Bengaluru on October 9. Over 350 prominent leaders from the startup and tech sectors will convene for the prestigious event, where eight categories will be awarded accolades as India's top entrepreneurship honors. Goyal has been actively engaged in trade negotiations with key nations, including the US, UK, and EU, sealing significant deals recently. His ministry is also streamlining regulations to bolster India's manufacturing sector, coinciding with record $94.53 billion in foreign direct investment in FY26.\n\nThe Economic Times Startup Awards, since its inception in 2015, has become a benchmark for entrepreneurial success in India. This year's edition arrives at a crucial juncture for the nation's economy, which is witnessing a surge in artificial intelligence advancements and a shifting geopolitical landscape as startups enter a new era of growth, capital discipline, and technological disruption. Growing wealthtech platform Groww claimed the coveted Startup of the Year award, joining an illustrious list of previous winners such as Urban Company, Lenskart, Zomato, OfBusiness, Razorpay, Delhivery, and Swiggy. Midas Touch award went to Manu Chandra, founder and managing partner at Sauce VC, Bootstrap Champ to Habuild, Social Enterprise award to climatetech startup Varaha, and Top Innovator category to deeptech startup Theranautilus. Woman Ahead category was jointly won by Pallavi Mohadikar and Pallavi Shrivastava, while Armatrix's Vibe coding startup Emergent received the Comeback Kid prize. The jury, chaired by Rishad Premji, deliberated for nearly three hours on August 25 to select the winners in various categories.",
  "summary": null,
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}