New Delhi, Feb 13: Led by Assam, there are at least 2,054 startups in the northeast region now, the Central government informed on Thursday. While Assam has 1,487 startups, Manipur has 179 and Tripura has 141 startups so far, Minister of State in DoNER Ministry, Dr Sukanta Majumdar, said in a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha.
In addition, the North Eastern Development Finance Corporation Ltd., an NBFC under the administrative control of the Ministry of Development of the North Eastern Region through the North East Enterprise Development Scheme (NEEDS) scheme, has been supporting first-generation entrepreneurs in developing the startup ecosystem of North East Region of India.
The government, with an intent to build a strong ecosystem for nurturing innovation and startups, and encouraging investments in the startup ecosystem of the country launched the ‘Startup India’ initiative on January 16, 2016.
The Centre is implementing various flagship and other schemes for the development of the northeast region through the respective ministries/departments. Under 10 per cent general budget allocation (GBS), an expenditure of Rs 5.74 lakh crore has been incurred by Central ministries/departments since the financial year 2014-15, according to the Ministry of Development of North-East Region.
The DoNER Ministry is also implementing five schemes under which development projects are posed by the state governments of the northeast region as well as by the Central ministries/agencies for implementation in the region.
Earlier this month, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced significant measures to bolster registered micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and startups.
With more than 1.59 lakh startups recognised by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT) as of January 15, India has firmly established itself as the third-largest startup ecosystem in the world.
Recognised startups have created over 16.6 lakh direct jobs across more than 55 varied industries. The highest number of direct jobs were created in the IT sector (2,04,119), followed by healthcare and life sciences (1,47,639), and professional and commercial services (94,060), according to the latest government data.
IANS