IIE to set up EDC and Incubation Centres in higher education institutions of NE

Guwahati, April 13: To boost and create an entrepreneurial ecosystem among college students of NER, the Indian Institute of Entrepreneurship (IIE), an institution under the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship with support from North Eastern Council will set up Entrepreneurship Development Centres as well as Incubation Centres in higher educational institutions of North Eastern Region.

IIE Director Dr Lalit Sharma, who is initiating the project said: “Youth has played a significant role in developing startup ecosystems in mature ecosystems like Karnataka and Gujarat. IIE plans to develop an ecosystem of NER through college youth. IIE shall reach out to young college students by developing Entrepreneurship Development Centres (EDC) and Incubation Centres within the higher educational institutions of NER.”

He said the objective of setting up EDC is to boost and promote the culture of entrepreneurship in higher educational institutions and build the capacity of institutions to develop student entrepreneurs.

“In comparison to other states, the number of student startups coming from NER is considerably low and in order to boost student startups. So, we need to build the capabilities of higher educational institutions to develop student entrepreneurship. Through EDCs, IIE shall work on enhancing the entrepreneurial intent of students and provide them with all necessary support including expanding upon their ideas, developing prototypes, conducting market research, developing their business plans, pitching for their startups and providing mentoring support to students,” Lalit Sharma said.

The proposed EDC in Colleges shall perform all these tasks and Incubation Centers shall further support them by providing the necessary technological support, market linkages, financial linkages, handholding support, grant support and professional networking support for the development of commercially viable and sustainable student startups.

In the first phase, the IIE, with the support of the North Eastern Council, will set up 30 EDC and four Incubation Centres. IIE further plans to increase the number of EDCs as well as Incubation Centres and cover colleges in the remotest areas of NER.

Under this project, 50 selected student start-ups will be supported financially through one-time grant funding of Rs 5 lakh each to start their business.

Sharma said the IIE is excited to take on this new responsibility and is confident that the initiative would help foster a culture of entrepreneurship and innovation among college students in the NE Region.

As per the data of the Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry, as on March 2023, there were a total of 1143 registered startups throughout the eight states of the Northeast. During the same time period, there were 10,808 startups in Karnataka and 6988 startups in Gujarat.