Assam has been recognised as a Leader in Category A (a population over 1 crore) in developing a strong startup ecosystem in the state, in the States’ Startup Ranking 2021.
This has been a steep progression from its previous recognition of being an emerging startup ecosystem.
The state was appreciated for facilitating the launch of the state-of-the-art incubator, Assam Startup – The Nest to nurture entrepreneurship, providing incentives and financial to women entrepreneurs and conducting a high number of outreach programmes with key ecosystem players.
It has gained special recognition as a ‘mentorship champion’ for building a large mentorship network for startups.
The States’ Startup Ranking is an annual report by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), grading the Indian states and UTs according to their startup ecosystems. The report grades a state based on 26 action points such as funding, mentorship, institutional support and enabling the enablers, among others.
Assam has scored 100th percentile in providing mentorship support and recorded 60th percentile in capacity building of enablers, 44th in incubation support and 38th in institutional support as compared to the other participating states and Union territories.
The 24 states and seven Union territories that participated in the exercise in Category A and B were classified under 5 categories: best performers, top performers, leaders, aspiring leaders and emerging startup ecosystems.
It’s important to note that Assam was clubbed in Category A, competing with states boasting of advanced startup ecosystems like Gujarat, Kerala, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Delhi and Odisha.
Assam outshone advanced states and UTs like Delhi and Andhra Pradesh to win recognition as a leader alongside Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab in Category A (a population of over 1 crore) and Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Andaman and Nicobar Islands in Category B (a population under 1 crore).
IIM Calcutta Innovation Park has been working untiringly to nourish and nurture the startup ecosystem in the state since September 2018, when Department of Industries, Commerce and Public Enterprise, Government of Assam, had ordained the B-School incubator to drive the Assam Startup initiative as a knowledge partner.
