Shillong, July 4: Meghalaya has been recognised along with Gujarat and Karnataka, as the best performer in developing a strong start-up ecosystem in the state. The recognition has been accorded by the Ministry of Industries and Commerce, Government of India.
“It’s very humbling to be standing with Gujarat and Karnataka and winning this honour of the best performer in the national rankings.
“We have a long way to go, but this is a good foundation. The long-term sustainable development of the State lies in building and handholding about 1000 enterprises (individual and collective, including rural cooperatives) that will solve many of the States problems” said Dr Vijay Kumar, Commissioner and Secretary, Department of Planning, Government of Meghalaya.
The results of the 3rd edition of ranking of states on support to the start-up ecosystem were released by Shri. Piyush Goyal, Minister of Commerce and Industry today in a felicitation ceremony in New Delhi.
A total of 24 states and 7 UTs participated in the exercise with 7 reform areas and 26 action points. The states were categorized in five groups – Best Performers, Top Performers, Leaders, Aspiring Leaders and Emerging Startup Ecosystem. Meghalaya was placed in the ‘Best Performers’ category along with the states of Gujarat and Karnataka. This is a huge honour and recognition for the State and its entrepreneurs.
The PRIME (Promotion and Incubation of Market Driven Enterprises) programme was launched in January, 2020 to realize the Chief Minister’s vision of providing opportunities to entrepreneurs in Meghalaya. As part of the programme, aspiring entrepreneurs are provided mentorship, incubation and funding support through a network of PRIME hubs. The entrepreneurs are also assisted in establishing credit and market linkage and till date almost 1,300 entrepreneurs have benefitted from the program.
The programme has been a success on account of the collaborative effort of the Commerce & Industries department that has been providing policy support and Meghalaya Basin Management Agency that has been instrumental in implementing the PRIME programme.
The programme has also tied up with institutions such as IIMCIP, Amazon India, Facebook/Meta, Invest India, Pernod Ricard India, NESF and Sauramandala Foundation as knowledge partners.
