Startups in North east: The government’s North East Venture Fund (NEVF) has invested in 37 startups since its launch in 2017, G Kishan Reddy, Minister of Development of the North East Region said in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha. The total amount invested in 37 startups stood at Rs 56.84 crores.
Of the 37 startups, 24 were from Assam, followed by six from Manipur, three from Meghalaya, two from Arunachal Pradesh and one each from Tripura and Sikkim.
Through these startups, 4,812 employment was generated so far since FY18, of which 3,906 were male and 906 were female. Moreover, 4,076 employees were unskilled while 736 were skilled. Assam witnessed the highest job creation through these startups, creating over 4,000 job opportunities.
NEVF was established as a close-ended fund with a target corpus of Rs 100 crore. It has received its targeted corpus with the contribution of Rs 30 crore from the North East Development Finance Corporation (NEDFi), Rs 25 crore from the Small Industries Development Bank of India, and Rs 45 crore from the Ministry of Development of the North East Region. However, the fund from MoDNER was provided to NEDFi as an interest-free loan, payable in lumpsum at the end of 15 years.
The government in June this year approved new guidelines for the scheme Promotion of MSMEs in North Eastern Region (NER) and Sikkim. The revised scheme will be implemented during the 15th Finance Commission Cycle (FY22-FY26 to provide financial support for enhancing the productivity, competitiveness and capacity building of MSMEs based in the NER and Sikkim. The existing guidelines of the scheme were approved in 2019.
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Under the new guidelines, the MSME Ministry enhanced the upper limit of financial assistance for various components of the scheme. For instance, maximum financial support to state governments for setting up new and modernizing existing Mini Technology Centres has been increased from Rs 10 crore to Rs 13.50 crore as 90 per cent of the project cost.
Projects for the creation of common facilities to supplement manufacturing, testing, packaging, R&D, product and process innovations and training for natural resources such as fruits, spices, agriculture, forestry, sericulture, bamboo etc. available in NER and Sikkim would be given priority.