Meghalaya best performer among smaller states for startup ecosystem, says report

NEW DELHI, July 4: Meghalaya has been adjudged as the best performer among smaller states having population of less than one crore in developing startup ecosystem for budding entrepreneurs, according to the ranking of states and Union territories by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT).
With hindsight of the development, Chief Minister Conrad Sangma described it as a huge moment for the state and its entrepreneurs.
Taking to Twitter, Sangma wrote, “#Meghalaya wins the Best Performer Award alongside Gujarat and Karnataka in the National Start Up Rankings 2021. Huge moment for the State and for our entrepreneurs (sic).”
The DPIIT ranking is an annual report which pegs the country’s states and union territories (UTs) according to their startup ecosystems.
The rankings are based on the initiatives taken to develop the startup ecosystem for promoting budding entrepreneurs. These initiatives include the Startup India Initiative, multiple funding and incubation support, and the government announcing January 16 as Startup Day.
The report scores a state on a scale of 100 with 26 action points such as the capacity building of enablers and funding, mentorship and institutional support, among others.
The rankings are based on the initiatives taken to develop the startup ecosystem for promoting entrepreneurs. These initiatives include the Startup India Initiative, multiple funding and incubation support, and the government announcing January 16 as Startup Day.
The Meghalaya government had launched its Startup Policy with the objective to “emerge as one of the leading ‘Startup Hubs’ in India by 2023 through strategic partnerships, conducive ecosystem, and investment and policy interventions”.
Meghalaya has attained the recognition for several notable initiatives including creating robust programmes such as ‘From Idea to Execution’ for capacity building of Higher Education Institutes and promoting the entrepreneurial spirit amongst students; supporting women & grassroots entrepreneurs through the PRIME kick-start grant and innovation scale-up loan; and providing comprehensive mentorship through PRIME Acceleration Coaching.
The government had also launched the PRIME (Promotion and Incubation of Market Driven Enterprises) programme in January 2020 to give a concerted push to the creation of an ecosystem for the promotion of entrepreneurship in the state.
The programme is also an embodiment of the CM’s vision of providing a platform besides opportunities to entrepreneurs and to make entrepreneurship the preferred choice of livelihood in the state, according to an official release of the government.
As part of PRIME, as many as 100 aspiring entrepreneurs are selected via an annual open competition — Chief Minister’s e-Championship Challenge. Once on board, they are provided with mentorship, incubation and infrastructural/logistics support through a network of PRIME hubs.
Taking cognizance of the fact that accessing formal financial services still remains a challenge in the state, various funding windows were incorporated under the programme to help the entrepreneurs in accessing seed capital alongside credit/loans.
As part of the funding initiative, grants up to Rs 5 lakh are provided to select entrepreneurs for product development and R&D-related activities.
Further, interest-free loans of up to Rs 25 lakhs are also provided to entrepreneurs to scale up their businesses/operations.
Till date, over 210 entrepreneurs have secured funding from the programme and almost 1,300 entrepreneurs have benefitted from various other programme components such as accessing the co-working spaces and undergoing training programmes.
Almost 60% of the beneficiaries under the programme have been female entrepreneurs.
Meanwhile, four of the Northeastern states have also been conferred with the recognition for their impressive strides along the sector.
Assam has been adjudged as ‘The Leader’ alongside Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab. However, Arunachal Pradesh has bagged the honour alongside Andaman & Nicobar Islands and Goa, among states/UTs with population of less than one crore.
The frontier state Arunachal Pradesh has received the honour for initiating several praiseworthy initiatives including establishing a Seed Fund and Innovation Fund mechanism for startups; providing advisory support and capacity building of enablers to create entrepreneurship cells in higher education institutes.
Moreover, Manipur, Nagaland and Tripura were the ‘Aspiring Leaders’ alongside Chandigarh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli & Daman and Diu, Himachal Pradesh, Puducherry among states/UTs with population of less than one crore.
Mizoram has been clubbed under the ‘Emerging Start-up Ecosystem’.
In his address, Union Minister for Commerce Piyush Goyal said India has 70,809 registered startups with the DPIIT, while stating that the number can only increase in the future. “We have 70,809 startups, with some more effort; we can get so many more. I think this number does not represent the actual number of people with startup ideas,” he said.
The states and UTs were divided into two categories – Category A (population of over one crore) and Category B (population under one crore).
Gujarat and Karnataka were ranked as ‘best performers’ in Category A.