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A scheme under Industries & Commerce, Assam
From the desk of Dr. Manju Rani Talukdar
Deputy Director, Industries & Commerce
Creating a culture of entrepreneurship in Assam by promoting and empowering the youth to become job creators and pursue their entrepreneurial dreams. Thereby, transforming Assam into a leading Startup hub of the country.
Assam Startup Policy 2017: The Objectives
The Policy underlines the following objectives:
Assam Startup Policy: The Pillars
The Assam Startup Policy 2017 is based on four broad pillars:
Creating a digital environment for the state ecosystem for ensuring easy access to infrastructure, incubation, Startup recognition, and incentives.
2. State-Owned Incubator – The Nest
Establishing an Avant-Garde marquee incubator, providing rigorous mentorship support, capacity building training, physical co-working space, and crucial networking opportunities to the budding entrepreneurs of the state.
3. Incentives
A gamut of fiscal and non-fiscal incentives to the budding entrepreneurs for transforming innovative ideas into scalable and sustainable ventures.
4. Academic Intervention
Proactive academic intervention towards creating a suitable environment for learning and experimentation and inculcating an innovative, problem-solving mindset among the next generation of entrepreneurs in Assam.
The Assam Startup Policy 2017 ushered in a number of changes towards facilitating the startups and catalyzing their efforts to sustain and scale in the future.
The Procurement Preference Policy 2015 was replaced by a new Procurement Preference (Amendment) Policy, Assam, 2017. The amended Policy aims at promoting and developing MSEs of the state by giving preference to the purchase of its products and services in comparison to the units located outside the state without compromising on the quality, competitiveness, and cost-effectiveness. The new clause in the Policy states that ‘Every Department of the State Government or its Agencies or aided institutions shall set an annual goal of procurement from MSEs from the FY 2017-18 and onwards, with the objective of trying to achieve overall procurement of minimum 25% of total purchases of products and services rendered by MSEs in a period of 3 years, which may be extended upto a period of 10 years.”
Under the Assam Ease of Doing Business Act 2016, the following are the actions that have been initiated for ease of doing business:
Assam Startup – The Nest
North-East India’s first state-owned marquee incubator, Assam Startup – The Nest, was inaugurated on 20 January 2019. The Mega State Level Hunt for the first incubation batch (run in a Cohort mode) was also launched on that very day.
Since its inception, The Nest has been able to generate great enthusiasm among the people. As many as 1047 applications were received for the first incubation batch out of which 50 startups were finally selected for incubation run in a 6-month Cohort mode. Assam’s swashbuckling startup incubator nurtured 26 startups under the second Cohort out of the 1036 applications received for the same. It has selected 103 startups for Cohort 3.0 from the 1013 applications received.
The incubated startups from both the Cohorts have succeeded in impacting around 3.4 lakhs lives and provided 260 direct employment opportunities. 76 startups from both the Cohorts have together generated Rs. 42.6 crore revenue (FY 20-21), while 54 incubated startups from the 3 COHORTS have together raised a cumulative external funding of Rs. 30 crore. Furthermore, 20 patentable products have been innovated by the startups incubated at Assam Startup.
The Nest has, so far, carried out 74 outreach events, reaching out to over 15,000+ students, young innovators, and aspiring startups across every district of Assam. Initiating the Hub & Spoke model, Assam Startup – The Nest (Hub) has, so far, signed 45 collaboration memoranda with top universities and colleges towards the same. To date, The Nest has collaborated with a number of colleges and universities in Assam to organize 24 Hackathons and B-Plan Contests towards identifying and encouraging startup ideas in the state. 10 Spoke Incubation Centers have been launched at various academic institutions.
Furthermore, towards ensuring grassroots penetration, inclusivity, and accessibility, Assam Startup is facilitating the setting up of Nano Incubation Centres, each at Tezpur, Bongaigaon, Silchar, and Dibrugarh.
Towards helping the startups with financial aid, the Government of Assam has introduced My Assam Startup ID (MASI). Startups found eligible for MASI can apply for grants up to Rs. 50 lakhs for scaling up their business. 292 applications have been evaluated out of the 381 applications received. 125 startups have been granted the My Assam Startup ID. 45 startups who had applied for financial benefits under the My Assam Startup ID (MASI) were found eligible for the corresponding benefits under the Assam Startup Policy, 2017 and have been sanctioned monetary remunerations worth Rs. 4 crores.
