GUWAHATI:
Assam and Manipur are at the forefront of the start-up culture in the Northeast, while other states are lagging behind, informed PBSL Murty, chairman cum managing director of North-Eastern Development Finance Corporation Ltd (NEDFi).
“Six states have shown less interest in getting start-up investment under NEVF and are not able to get the necessary investment,” he said, on the sidelines of the virtual launch of the Start-Up Investment Festival (SuIF) 2022, on February 15, in Guwahati.
The SuIF, 2022, aims at supporting promising entrepreneurs of the region through North East Venture Fund (NEVF), a joint venture between the Ministry of Development of North-Eastern Region (DoNER) and NEDFi, with an initial corpus of Rs 100 crore.
“We have been supporting start-ups with Rs 76.74 crore since 2017, of which, 60 per cent goes to Assam and the rest to Manipur and the six states. However, we have observed poor response from the states of Meghalaya, Mizoram, Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland, including Sikkim,” he added.
Interestingly, in Meghalaya, the situation is bleak, despite the presence of the Indian Institute of Management – Technical Incubation Centre (IIM – TIC), which according to Murty, reflects the need “to develop a start-up ecosystem in these states”.
Emphasising the lacklustre performance of the six states, he further stressed on the main focus of the NEVF, which is to provide early and growth-stage investment for enterprises involved in food processing, healthcare, and tourism, among other sectors.
The investment size of the scheme ranges between Rs 25 lakh and Rs 10 crore, with a long-term horizon of five to 10 years. So far, investment has gone to 36 start-ups.
Union secretary of DoNER, Lok Ranjan, elaborated how the ministry is looking for a multi-lateral agency for the development of the region, adding that a Northeast-level festival is scheduled from March 4-27 in Dubai, highlighting “a pavilion exclusively for the region so they can get investment from outside”.
The NEDFi will be the nodal officer for the Northeast at the Dubai event. Apart from funds, entrepreneurs will be offered counselling and assistance.