Manipur Start-up Cohort launched

Imphal: “We have the potential and resources, especially human resource, but we are not exploring, utilizing it properly,” Manipur chief minister N. Biren Singh said at the launching of the Start-up Cohort of Startup Manipur and XR for Start-up Roadshow at Classic Grande, here on Thursday.

People cannot depend only on the government job for employment, and that schemes like the StartUp are providing employment to the youths of the state.

“We are not only providing employment through such schemes but we have also started exporting products of the state including black rice, pineapples, etc. to the outside world,” Biren said.

He said, “We could have had incubation centres earlier, but we don’t have the infrastructure and functioning of Manipur Technical University was also delayed due to certain issues.”

Every ministries have been cooperative and supportive to the state and expecting more, because Manipur is marching ahead, he added.

The XR Startup program aims to accelerate India’s contribution towards building the foundation of the metaverse and nurturing the development of Extended Reality (XR) technologies.

The chief minister thanked all concerned including Sikkim Manipal University, NITI Ayog, Manipur Technical University for bringing the world to the tiny state of Manipur through Meta, and said involvement of Meta means the whole world is looking.

He explained the reason for launching of the StartUp Manipur scheme and said that it was Honorable Prime Minister Narendra Modi who had launched the Start Up Scheme nationwide in 2016.

​Soon after coming to power in 2017, the then state government also wanted to launch the StartUp Manipur and did so in 2018, he added.

Mission director, Atal Innovation Mission, Niti Ayog, GOI Dr Chintan Vaishnav said,”What we have learnt from the Atal Innovation Mission is that for every rupee we have invested in the innovation mission, for the eco-system, we have received about Rs 17 in return.” There are bases to create entrepreneurship in places that are appropriate to the place, to the skill, to the capabilities, to the aspiration of the people, he added.

He said India has about 77,000 registered start-ups, and one start-up on average creates 11 jobs, which is about seven and a half lakh jobs in total.

The launch of the “Start-up Cohort of Startup Manipur and XR for Start-up Roadshow” was organised by the Start-Up Incubation Center-Manipur Technical University and Atal Incubation Centre- Sikkim Manipal University Technology Business Incubation Foundation supported by the state planning department.

Additional chief secretary Vumlunmang Vualnam, MTU vice-chancellor Dr Bhabeswar Tongbram, SMU vice-chancellor Dr Rajan S Grewal, MEITY Start-up HUB (MHS) Government of India CEO Jeet Vijay, public policy director META Sunil Abraham among others attended the function.