SHILLONG:
The second day of the Chief Minister’s Start-Up and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) week commenced here at the State Convention Centre of Pine Wood Hotel in Shillong on November 15, with workshops on CSR laws, Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Conference, Panel Discussions and other programmes to help aspiring entrepreneurs in their Start-Up journey.
Organised by the Promotion and Incubation of Market Driven Enterprises (PRIME) in collaboration with Invest India and Start Up India, the workshops were aimed at helping aspiring businesses, students, leaders, government officials, NGOs, Academia in comprehending the CSR laws, guidelines, policies and funding initiated by the state government through its flagship PRIME initiative to help start-ups and budding entrepreneurs in the state.
Today’s session was divided into two parts namely Startup India ASCEND Workshop and Invest India CSR Workshop & First Bootcamp Cohort, wherein speakers spoke on a wide range of topics governing the start-up culture, giving insights on what it takes to build a business and sustain them.
Welcoming the audience, Ms Aprajita Saini Manager, Startup India, gave the opening remark and context setting for the ASCEND Startup Workshop Meghalaya edition. She thanked the PRIME Meghalaya team and Government of Meghalaya for all the constant support and efforts they put in to make the workshop successful.
Highlighting the potential of Meghalaya Start-up ecosystem, which happens to be ranked as the best performer in the recently released state’s Startup ranking framework results, she said that initiative aims to foster a spirit of entrepreneurship and innovation to sensitize the gathering on filling the knowledge gap and make the ecosystem the most thriving programme in the country.
In his special address to highlight the aim and the importance of the workshop, Mr Flo Oberhofer, Program Head, PRIME, pointed out that the session was about learning all the aspects of start-up culture involving entrepreneurs from Meghalaya, North East and from across India.
“We have different entrepreneurs from different backgrounds, including ones from grassroots level. I think this is something which you can look forward to inorder to learn from these entrepreneurs, and at the same time share ideas with them on different aspects of entrepreneurship,” he said.
Taking over the proceedings, Mr. Neeraj Kumar Khater (Assistant Manager, Startup India Team) gave a presentation on benefits and incentives for Startups, wherein he said that the advantages of receiving recognition under Startup India includes easier public procurement standards, startup pattern applications and IPR applications, tax exemptions from angel tax, and 10000 CRM for startups
On the same day, the CSR session on Basics of Intellectual Property Rights and Workshop on Preparing Project Proposals for Seeking CSR – Corporate Social Responsibility Fundin Part 1 were addressed by Mr. Pankaj Periwal, FCA (Partner, V. Singhi & Associates Chartered Accountants) and Mr. Nikhil Pant, CEO, REACHA & Founder, Lakshyaa Former Chief Programme Executive, NFCSR, IICA, Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Govt of India).
Keynote speaker Nikhil Pant, CEO, REACHA & Founder, Lakshyaa (Former Chief Programme Executive, NFCSR, IICA, Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Govt of India) took a workshop on Preparing Project Proposals for Seeking CSR – Corporate Social Responsibility Funding Part 2 from the government, and what are the various steps involved in it.
Pant delivers a presentation on the Mega Trends in CSR Compliance, accessing funds, the need for documentation in businesses, and involvement of NGOs with funding agencies and corporates
Similarly, delivering a speech at the workshop, Dr B.D.R Tiwari, IAS, Commissioner and Secretary, Govt of Meghalaya said that Shillong is one of the most significant cities in the North East region, and its potential must be realised.
“Shillong drives the Northeast, but we have not utilised the enormous resources that Shillong and the state of Meghalaya, in general has,” Tiwari said.
He said that given the expanding sectors and corporates, the need of the hour is to educate individuals on fundamental CSR regulations. Our approach should change inorder to maximise the potential of the state,” he said, adding that training is necessary in order to improve the skills of entrepreneurs.
Addressing the gathering on Building a Startup, Ms. Nimisha Varma (Co- founder, Aloe E-Cell) (NSA 2020 Winner under Clean Energy), narrated the story of her start-up Aleo E-Cell, which she started with her co-founders during her college days in 2019.
Varma said that the start-up manufactures 100 per cent Eco-Friendly and non-hazardous batteries using Aloe Vera, and it is a worldwide recognised product, aimed at solving e-waste, pollution and diseases emerging out of these pollutants.
She said that turning their start up idea into a reality was not something which happened overnight, and that it was a long process involving many brainstorming sessions, ideating on plans, implementing them and working hard.
This was followed by a panel discussion where inspiring entrepreneurs from Meghalaya and North East shared their journey.
The panel moderator for the session was Pranjal Konwar (Chief Operating Officer, IIM Calcutta Innovation Park) and the panelists were Iaishah Rymbai (Founder of Eriweave), Dasumarlin Majaw (Founder of Smokey Falls Tribe Coffee), Bankitlang Nongbri (Co-founder of ECO-RI), Dhruba Jyoti Deka (Co-founder of Brahmaputra Fables) and Dhristi Medhi (Co-founder of Quickyghy).
Mark Laitflang Stone, founder of Avenues, a pioneer in the capacity building field in North East India with cross-domain competence in skills mapping, skills gap/training/ training needs identification, and skills development for the unemployed, was also present at the workshop. He said that this is the first such event in the state that promises to offer so much for budding enterpreneurs.
Notably, the workshop spread across three days aims at training Entrepreneurs, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), Government Employees, Academia, Leaders, Cohert 3 Entrepreneurs, Students and others on how to get familiar with submitting business proposals using CSR funds.