Guwahati: Meghalaya received the accolade of the ‘Top Performer State’ at the ‘National Startup Awards 2022’ held as part of the ‘National Startup Day’ celebrations. Having secured the position of ‘Best Performer’ the previous year, the northeast hill state continues on a sustained trajectory of developing its start-up ecosystem. Union Minister for Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal handed over the award to Meghalaya Commissioner Secretary for Finance and Planning Vijay Kumar at a ceremony held in New Delhi on Tuesday.
The awards are given after a stringent process that involves telephonic interviews of candidates and legal review of businesses by independent third-party evaluators. Meghalaya’s efforts, specifically in funding start-ups and in providing incubation and mentorship, have been recognised by the central government.
The state was faced with two contrasting circumstances till a few years ago. On one hand, Meghalaya was at the zenith of a demographic dividend with more than 72 per cent of its population below the age of 35, and on the other, there was a dearth of employment generating industries. Being an entrepreneur himself, Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma took some steps to convert the state’s sizable youth population into job creators instead of job seekers. He spearheaded efforts which materialised into the ‘Meghalaya Startup Policy 2018’. It was introduced with the objective of making Meghalaya India’s leading start-up hub by 2023.
In pursuit of that target, the Meghalaya government launched the Promotion & Incubation of Market-driven Enterprises (PRIME) programme in 2020 for building a start-up ecosystem. PRIME has been instrumental in catalysing the state’s start-up revolution. Sangma’s E-Champion Challenge and the PRIME incubation programme are cornerstones of this effort. It is a recurring annual event through which promising youngsters are selected for pitching start-up ideas in front of industry experts, successful entrepreneurs and government officials. The programme currently supports about 5,500 entrepreneurs and more than 200 start-ups. Many of these have received seed funding and zero interest scale up loans, as per official release.
A large number of incubation centres called ‘PRIME Hubs’ are currently being set up where new entrepreneurs are offered state-of-the-art workspace and supportive infrastructures for processing, packaging and value addition activities.
These PRIME Hubs also facilitate market access for the entrepreneurs to realise premium prices for their products in local and the overseas markets. Meghalaya has been witnessing the success of these market linkage strategies for well over a year now.
Last December, a large consignment of Geographical Indication (GI)-tagged Khasi mandarin oranges was sold during the three-day ‘Zest Fest’ held in Karnataka’s Bengaluru. Earlier in the year, the world-famous Kew Pineapples and Lakadong Turmeric from the state were exported to premium retail outlets in the Middle East, the release mentioned.
Recognising Meghalaya’s matrilineal society, 20 per cent of the funding support offered under the PRIME programme is reserved exclusively for the women entrepreneurs. A large number of women have benefited from this support and are currently running thriving businesses in traditional handloom and other innovative trades, it stated.