The Youth is the vibrant force in North East India. And with the region fast evolving hub of new technology, innovation and emerging social and business ventures, this provides unprecedented opportunity and scope for entrepreneurship and startups. A lot of new initiatives are being taken up to make North East India a vibrant entrepreneurial society from the socio-economic perspective. The latest offering is emergence of Startups as entrepreneurial ventures or new businesses in the form of a company or a temporary organisation inventing a business model which is scalable, replicable and sustainable, formed usually by partnership.
The ‘Startup India, Standup India’ plan announced by the Government, and provisions like two years of tax-free facility and three months’ exit period; the special endowment in the form of a ‘venture fund’ as a special incentive under this scheme for new entrepreneurs, so as to relieve them from financial liabilities under the Ministry of DoNER; special venture fund provision in the North Eastern Council (NEC) policy programme, are testimony to the efforts towards a positive transformation in the startup environment in the region.
As the connectivity with the Northeast by air, rail and road improves and various initiatives of central government make headway including the ‘Act East’ Policy see more results with South East Asian countries, the North Eastern Region will emerge as an important industrial and business hub, not only for India but also for the other countries across the eastern border. This will not only boost employability and revenue in the region but also will attract youths from the other parts of the country to participate in the development of North Eastern States.
Therefore, in consonance with the national and international focus, a Startup Fest for North East is the need of the hour – to amalgamate ideas with creativity, brainstorm, dream different, develop action plans, groom up the startup aspirants and lead projects that have potential to become popular brands from the NE region.
- The UPSTART North East Startup Festival is designed as a region wide festival of events that help startups grow faster by bringing together founders, investors, business leaders and developers around specific themes (or verticals). These day long match making activities shall be a joint effort of startup in the cities of Shillong, Kohima, Aizawl, Gangtok, Agartala, Imphal, Itanagar and culminating in the 2 days North East Startup Festival 2016 in Guwahati.
- The one day and 2 days marathon of matchmaking between startups, investors, developers and corporate will hold dedicated events on specialized topics and activities and outputs.
- The organisers are virtually unanimous in their conclusion that the North East Startup Ecosystem would benefit greatly from organizing a North East startup event. One that would be high in quality and would not only focus on the technology, but also on the fields of expertise in which the region excels – such as food and agriculture, hand-loom & handicrafts, hotel & hospitality, health, energy, technology and water.