Guwahati: The northeast region now has at least 2,054 startups, with Assam in the lead, the central government announced on Thursday.
While Assam has 1,487 startups, Manipur has 179 and Tripura has 141 startups so far, Minister of State in the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), Sukanta Majumdar, said in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha.
This underscores the state’s growing entrepreneurial drive and its emergence as a key center for innovation in the region.
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 scheme, has been supporting first-generation entrepreneurs in developing the startup ecosystem of the North East Region of India.
This initiative supports entrepreneurs by offering term loans covering up to 75% of the project cost, with a maximum project limit of Rs 50 lakh. The scheme provides an interest rate of 8% with a repayment period of up to seven years.
The Centre, with an aim 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.
Assam’s startup ecosystem has also benefited from the ‘Startup India’ initiative.
This program aims to foster a robust environment for innovation, investment, and entrepreneurship across India, with a special focus on the Northeast.
The Centre is implementing various flagship and other schemes for the development of the northeast region through the respective ministries/departments.
With more than 1.59 lakh startups recognized 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.
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Recognized 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.
