GUWAHATI, 16 Apr: To boost and create an entrepreneurial ecosystem among college students of the Northeast, the Indian Institute of Entrepreneurship (IIE), with support from the North Eastern Council (NEC), will set up entrepreneurship development centres (EDC) as well as incubation centres in higher educational institutions of the NE.
IIE Director Dr Lalit Sharma, who is initiating the project said: “The youths have played a significant role in developing startup ecosystem in mature ecosystems like Karnataka and Gujarat. IIE plans to develop ecosystem of NE through college youths. IIE shall reach out to young college students by developing entrepreneurship development centres and incubation centers within the higher educational institutions of NE.”
He said that “the objective of setting up the EDCs is to boost and promote the culture of entrepreneurship in higher educational institutions and build the capacity of institutions to develop student entrepreneurs.”
“In comparison to other states, the numbers of student startups coming from NE are considerably low, and in order to boost student startups, we need to build the capabilities of higher educational institutions to develop student entrepreneurship,” Sharma said, adding that, “through EDCs, IIE shall work on enhancing the entrepreneurial intent of students and provide them with all necessary support, including expanding upon their ideas, developing prototypes, conducting market research, developing their business plans, pitching for their startups and providing mentoring support to students.”
The proposed EDCs in colleges shall perform all these tasks and the incubation centres shall further support them by providing the necessary technological support, market linkages, financial linkages, handholding support, grant support, and professional networking support for development of commercially viable and sustainable student startups, he said.
In the first phase, the IIE, with the support of the NEC, will set up 30 EDCs and four incubation centres in higher educational institutes across the NE. The IIE further plans to increase the number of EDCs as well as incubation centres and cover colleges in the remotest areas of the NE, so that the students from remote areas may also be a part of the startup revolution in the country and contribute towards economic development of the region.
As per the plan, the IIE will work closely with higher education institutions to establish these centres that will provide students with the necessary resources, guidance, and mentorship to launch their own startups.
Under this project, 50 selected student startups will be supported financially through one-time grant funding of Rs 5 lakhs each to start their business.
“The IIE is excited to take on this new responsibility and is confident that the initiative would help foster a culture of entrepreneurship and innovation among college students in the Northeast,” Sharma said.
As per the data of the commercy & industry ministry, as on March 2023, there were a total of 1,143 registered startups throughout the eight states of the Northeast, whereas during the same time period, there were 10,808 startups in Karnataka and 6,988 startups in Gujarat.