Nagaland woken up to potential of startup — KD Vizo

Our Correspondent

Kohima, Aug. 23 (EMN): Lively presentations from young entrepreneurs representing 18 start-ups from Nagaland formed the main part of the session on ‘Investment opportunities in Nagaland’ being held as part of the two-day Nagaland CSR and Investment Conclave 2022 at IT and Communication Centre in Kohima on Tuesday.

The start-ups were Aboriginal Energy Pvt. Ltd.; Zeliang Code Tech Pvt. Ltd.; Runway Nagaland, Autocion; Land of Angh Adventures Group; NagaEd; ilandlo Services Pvt. Ltd.; Jome Foods Pvt. Ltd.; Online Express Nagaland; Sanang Eduservice LLP; Modern Myriad Building Pvt. Ltd.; Grandpa’s Pickle Co.; Z’s Health Food; Saucy Joe’s; Ahibo LLP; NE Health Services; Dimapur Disposables; and One Naga Construction Pvt. Ltd.

While giving their pitch presentation, experts and investors questioned the entrepreneurs about their goals, aims, ideas, and projects among others as they responded to their queries.

Impressed to see the enthusiasm and passion of the start-ups in showcasing their ideas, KD Vizo, principal secretary of IT&C, encouraged them to continue building their ambitions and projects.

He informed how the government of India launched the ‘Startup India’ programme with the objective to build a strong ecosystem for nurturing innovation and startups in the country that would drive sustainable economic growth and generate large scale employment opportunities- a vision that aimed to tap the entrepreneurial potential of the people of India and enabled the talent of India to dream of ideas, put them in action, and convert them into game changing ventures.

Accordingly, Vizo apprised that the state government is taking cognizant of the massive potential of the entrepreneurial strength of the youth initiated ‘Start-up programme and policy’ with Industries and Commerce as nodal department to create an enabling environment for start-ups to grow by ensuring knowledge exchange, capacity building, policy interventions and access to funding.

“The idea of start-up is as ancient as this world, where each age has been defined by disruption of the previous one, by the evolution of ideas and products that displace the old ones,” he said adding, “Start-ups have always been the engine of progress. The mega corporations that we know and exist today were startups of yesterday.”

However, the officer stated that the difference now is that the digital age has created new possibilities and new environment for start-ups.

Vizo asserted that the convergence of technology integration across diverse field have opened a new world for enterprise adding that today the startups defy the natural rate of growth.

“We have a huge market with rapid growth and untapped opportunities in every sector. Nagaland has now woken up to the potential of startup with great enthusiasm and energy and we see start-ups, not as short term investments but as long term commitments,” he said.

Brig. Ashis Bhattacharyya, senior advisor of CII (NE and UTs), informed that they have just signed an MoU with the Industries department of Nagaland for partnering with each other offering not only start-up pitch sessions but a bouquet of offerings for the overall development of the entire startup ecosystem in the state.

He apprised how CII recognises start-ups as an economic growth, how they have put in place a robust framework at the national, regional and state levels to promote innovation and support startups.

As part of the Nagaland CSR conclave, Bhattacharyya informed how they have come up with the need of engaging the start-ups of Nagaland through a pitch session with some prominent investors as their long-term partners.

In order to carry forward the roadmap for development of industries in Nagaland, Vitsutho Nyuthe, director of Industries and Commerce, stated that a broad-based objectives and initiatives need to be taken up, promote and nurture the culture of entrepreneurship, innovation and to give support to startups.

To achieve the objectives, he emphasised on the need to create and consolidate sufficient land bank by developing agencies to overcome the difficulty arising out of the unique land holding system in Nagaland while conduct capacity building and training programmes for skilling the workforce in the manufacturing and service sectors with handholding and mentorship as a key tool.

Nyuthe highlighted the need to create post-harvest management facilities such as cold storage, warehouses and other logistics requirements at strategic locations and facilitate backward-forward linkages to promote the food processing sector.

He stressed on the necessity to accelerate the start-up initiative intended to build a strong eco-system for nurturing innovation and start-ups in the state that would drive sustainable economic growth and generate large scale employment opportunities.

To take industrialisation thrust areas forward, he stated that food processing industries, tourism industry and hospitality, agro-based industries, mineral based industries, textiles industries, electronics and IT, bamboo processing/ manufacturing industries, medicinal and aromatic plants and value-added products, renewable energy, waste management, power and health and wellness have been identified.

Kenei Theunuo, team leader of Start-up Nagaland, informed that their objective was to promote at least one start-up in every district and to establish state-of-the-art innovation hub, which would serve as a technology, cultural and creative centre where design, technology and business would blend to form a thriving start-up community.

It was informed that Start-up Nagaland aims to inculcate and stimulate a culture of creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship by creating the requisite environment for learning and experimentation during all stages of education.

Speaking on the role of investment promotion agency (IPA), Dr. Geetima Das Khrishna from Invest India informed that Nagaland is the first state to have single window system (SWS).

Khrishna went on to inform how products from Nagaland were put on display and apprised that they have been identifying textile, handloom and handicrafts from the 16 districts of Nagaland, which have the potentials to hit international market.

Resource persons including Dr. Rene Van Berkel, UNIDO representative and head regional Office, India; Lanu Jamir, Zip Engineering and Innovation Centre, Dimapur; and Arnab Chakrabortty, national director of Empretec India Foundation besides Kekhrievor Kevichusa and V Kezo from the Industries and Commerce department also spoke on the occasion.