Nagaland witnessing sizeable growth in start-ups — STPI official

STPI an autonomous organisation under the Indian Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and plays a role in promoting and nurturing the growth of the information technology and software services industry

KOHIMA — Jurisdictional Director of Northeastern states, Software Technology Parks of India (STPI), Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Vandana Srivastava, on Tuesday said that there has been considerable growth in start-ups in Nagaland in the past two years.

The STPI Kohima, located in the Directorate of Information Technology and Communication, has 80% occupancy despite having opened in 2021, Srivastava observed while interacting with media persons here at Hotel Vivor.

Out of the eight NE states, Meghalaya is doing well in the start-ups, she added.

Speaking about OctaNE programme, she said it is a bouquet of eight internetworked Centre of Entrepreneurship (CoEs) to support technology-led innovation in NE India.

At Kohima STPI, the focus is particularly on the domain of IT applications in graphics design and the gaming industry. Under this programme, an initial funding of INR 25 lakh is given to each selected start-up related to IT. The start-ups are provided mentors as well, she said.

The start-ups are selected through an open challenge programme (OCP) and once selected, they will sit with the mentors to get the necessary information required for taking the project forward.

Srivastava shared that they are getting good responses from Nagaland and have so far received four proposals as of Tuesday, which have been processed. The selected ones are in the advanced stage of getting the funds, she added.

With September 30 being the last date for submission of proposals, she said they are expecting more proposals from the state. However, the windows for inviting the proposals will be opened from time to time.

A committee will screen the proposals received and those selected will be housed in the STPI centres. In Kohima, they have created a play and plug incubation facility for the selected start-up as well as a lab focused on gaming and graphic design, which has the latest equipment and products, she added.

The jurisdictional director also met with various officials from the department concerned and the ‘start-up Nagaland’ start-ups during her three-day visit to Nagaland.

Currently, there are 63 STPI centres and 22 Centre of Entrepreneurship across the country.

Additional director and officer-in-charge of STPI, Abhishek Mishra, said that the main objectives of the OctaNE programme are to create a robust eco-system and incubate a minimum of 367 start-ups, to create employment opportunities, to e-commerce activities from the region, to create a platform for entrepreneurs to enable networking, knowledge-sharing and co-learning, and to develop a tinkering and innovation culture amongst students and professionals.

Mishra also disclosed that under the OctaNE, there will be direct funding support to defray part of their (start-ups) costs such as cloud hosting and services, cost of engagement of mentors, IPR creation, seed capital and cost of marketing.

One of the major challenges the centre faced is that Nagaland being geographically located at the last mile, there are cases of delay in delivery of infrastructure.

People are also unaware of such programmes, he said, and added that people of the state have to start thinking globally and solve the challenges globally.

STPI is an autonomous organisation under the Indian Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and plays a role in promoting and nurturing the growth of the information technology and software services industry in India.

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