SHILLONG, JULY 4: Meghalaya was placed in the ‘Best Performers’ category along with the states of Gujarat and Karnataka in national start-up rankings -2021 even as Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma has dedicated the award to the entrepreneurs of Meghalaya.
The results of the 3rd edition of ranking of states on support to the start-up ecosystem were released by Piyush Goyal, Minister of Commerce and Industry on Monday 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.
When asked, Sangma said that it was a very happy moment for the state as a whole as the government has been focusing on entrepreneurship and start-ups for a long time.
“It is a great honour and pride and the full credit should be given to the entrepreneurs who are really the people who are driving this hence this award is dedicated to the entrepreneurs of the state,” he said.
He also informed that “at the initial stage, we faced a lot of challenges and I felt that the support was not there hence there is a need even for a small support structure that would encourage entrepreneurs in the long run.”
Sangma said that for any economy to move forward there is a need for startups and Entrepreneurship to be encouraged as economy cannot move forward without support and encouragement
He added that the government has got its limitations and it can only act as its facilitator which creates the policies, creates infrastructure and ecosystem but what drives the economy is business and entrepreneurship.
“We have been focusing on it for the past two to three years and almost four years now and today we have seen that Meghalaya has been awarded as one of the best startup states along with two other states i.e. Karnataka and Gujarat” he added.
The PRIME (Promotion and Incubation of Market Driven Enterprises) program was launched in January, 2020 to realize the Chief Minister’s vision of providing opportunities to entrepreneurs in the State.
As part of the program, 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 program 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 program. The program 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.
By Our Reporter
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