SHILLONG, Nov 15: Workshops on CSR laws, entrepreneurship and sustainability conference, panel discussions and other programmes marked the second day of the Chief Minister’s Start-Up and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) week, as the activities aimed to help aspiring entrepreneurs in their start-up journey.
The programme was held at the State Convention Centre of Pine Wood Hotel here on Tuesday.
The programme was organised by 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, and 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.
Tuesday’s session was divided into two parts — 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, while giving insights on what it takes to build a business and sustain them
Welcoming the audience, Aprajita Saini Manager from Startup India gave the opening remark and context setting for the ASCEND Startup Workshop Meghalaya edition.
She thanked the PRIME Meghalaya team and the government for the constant support and effort to make the workshop successful.
Highlighting the potential of Meghalaya’s 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 sensitise 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, Programme Head, PRIME, Flo Oberhofer, pointed out that the session was about learning all the aspects of start-up culture involving entrepreneurs from Meghalaya, Northeast 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 in order 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, Neeraj Kumar Khater, Assistant Manager, Startup India Team, gave a presentation on benefits and incentives for start-ups.
Keynote speaker Nikhil Pant, CEO, REACHA & Founder, Lakshyaa, and former Chief Programme Executive, NFCSR, IICA, Ministry of Corporate Affairs, 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 delivered 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, Commissioner and Secretary, Dr BDR Tiwari, said that Shillong is one of the most significant cities in the Northeastern 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 in order to maximise the potential of the state,” he said, adding that training is necessary in order to improve the skills of entrepreneurs.
Nimisha Varma, co-founder, Aloe E-Cell, and NSA 2020 Winner under Clean Energy, addressed the gathering on building a start-up, while narrating the story of her start-up Aleo E-Cell, which she started with her co-founders during her college days in 2019.
This was followed by a panel discussion where inspiring entrepreneurs from Meghalaya and Northeast shared their journey.
Founder of Avenues, a pioneer in the capacity building field in North East India, Mark Laitflang Stone, 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 entrepreneurs.
It may be noted that the workshop spread across three days aims at training entrepreneurs, NGOs, government employees, academia, leaders, Cohert 3 entrepreneurs, students and others on how to get familiar with submitting business proposals using CSR funds.
