​Moscow, June 2 (IANS) This part of the season is generally marked by slight drizzles but on Thursday as the Russian capital readied itself to the fourth edition of the 'Start Up Village -2016', a concept aimed at showcasing the start-up ability of the Russians as also to provide a competitive platform, the sun shone bright and clear.

More than 2,000 participants have lined up to be a part of the initiative, that is also witnessing a large contingent of over 500-plus media persons, both domestic and from abroad. Hosted by the Skolkovo Foundation, the 'Start Up Village' has huge ambitions to place Moscow as a major tech hub in the region would be operational by 2018, officials told IANS.

In a state of being fully operational, the sprawling campus is set to be a mini-city with more than 70,000 people employed in the tech sector. A host of "most interesting start ups have been lined up for the 'start up bazaar' and 20 top Russian companies will be shown in the augmented reality and virtual reality zone is a special pavillion, Taisiya Yarmak, the head of International PR at the Skolkovo Foundation, said.

Among the major speakers at the two-day event are Pekka Vijakainen, advisor to the president of Skolkovo Foundation, Igor Bogachev; vice-president of the IT cluster, Albert Efimov; head of Skolvo Robotics Center, Igor Karavaev; executive director of the Nuclear Technology Cluster Rosler Philipp; managing director and member of the World Economic Forum and Azad Gulzar, head of Access programs at Google India.

The participants include Octopod, a mobile software development company based in St Petersburg that specializes in native application development for iOS and Android; Alchemists VR, a najor multi-player online VR role-playing game Fibrum; the Russian company that creates a global platform of virtual reality; Hudway which makes Hudway glass, a car phone mount that turns a smartphone into a heads-up display, among others.​