Imphal: Manipur Chief Minister N. Biren Singh Saturday launched Venture Fund for Manipur Startup Scheme 2.0 in collaboration with North Eastern Development Finance Corporation Ltd (NEDFi) here.
N. Biren Singh said that his government’s aim is to provide a source of earning to every household of the State and as such it has taken up various schemes and initiatives to give direct or indirect employment to at least a member of each family.
The Chief Minister said since the formation of his government in 2017, priority had been given to giving employment to as many youths as possible by taking up the Manipur Startup Scheme. Around 6000 Startups had been given financial assistance under the Scheme so far. The investment made by NEDFi had also made it possible for many Startups to expand its operation, he added.
He mentioned that the Startup Scheme has been giving avenues to entrepreneurs to expand their undertakings and to turn the youths from job seekers to job creators. Expressing that youths are the future of the State, he informed that Rs. 10 crores each for Imphal West, Imphal East and Churachandpur had already been sanctioned for setting up Youth Skill Centre. Rs. 5 crores each had also been sanctioned for Senapati, Ukhrul and Chandel districts.
Stating that various initiatives like Go to Village and Go to Hills had been taken up to bring inclusive development in the state, N. Biren added that the state is marching ahead towards development, with bandh and blockades becoming a thing of the past.
He continued that a senior officer of the Government had been given in-charge of each Sub-Divisions of Manipur to ensure that infrastructure development reaches every nook and corner of the state.
The Chief Minister further stated that various meetings are being held to streamline the development works taken and to ensure its progress. Mentioning the development works including the construction of seven-storeyed Government quarters at New Checkon, Sangai Ethnic Park, Amusement Park at Thengu Chingjin and Heritage site at Makhel, he maintained that the State could be taken to a higher level of development if we could go in the same pace.
He raised concern that only a few people with innovative ideas had approached to get the benefit of the Startup Scheme. He also stressed the need for the State’s youths to get expertise in the IT sector as the world is advancing rapidly with the coming of 5G service adding that the State is lagging in this sector.
He mentioned that the youths of Manipur have lots of talents and possess discipline compared to other states. Informing that the corpus fund set aside for the Manipur Startup Scheme had been increased from Rs. 30 crores to Rs. 100 crores, he appealed to the youths of Manipur to take benefit of the Scheme and expressed his hopefulness that the State would achieve the goal of becoming the first state to have an income earner in every family.
Chairman and Managing Director, NEDFi, PVSLN Murty stated that the launching of first-ever Venture Capital for Startup, to encourage the youths to come up with viable propositions, would be memorable in the history of Manipur.
He added that the State came up with the launch of venture capital through the initiative of the Chief Minister before other states had done it. He mentioned that the grant provided by the government of Manipur in the Startup loan had created the ignite in many startups.
During the programme, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the Government of Manipur and NEDFi. The Chief Minister also distributed prizes to the winners of Techstar Startup Weekend organized by MIT.
Eco Youth from CIPET was given the first prize with a cash award of Rs. 25,000, Alleviate from MIT with Rs. 15,000 for the second prize and Tanja from MTU was awarded Rs. 10,000 for the third prize. Consolation prizes were also awarded to other startups.
