The results of the 3rd edition of ranking of states on support to the startup ecosystem were released by Union minister of commerce and industry, Piyush Goyal on July 4 in a felicitation ceremony in New Delhi.
A total of 24 states and seven UTs participated in the exercise with seven reform areas and 26 action points. The states were categorized in five groups – Best Performers, Top Performers, Leaders, Aspiring Leaders and Emerging Startup Ecosystem.
Meghalaya was placed in the ‘Best Performers’ category along with the states of Gujarat and Karnataka. This is a huge honour and recognition for the state and its entrepreneurs.
The PRIME (Promotion and Incubation of Market Driven Enterprises) programme was launched in January 2020 to realize the chief minister Conrad Sangma’s vision of providing opportunities to entrepreneurs in the state. As part of the programme, aspiring entrepreneurs are provided mentorship, incubation and funding support through a network of PRIME hubs. The entrepreneurs are also assisted in establishing credit and market linkage and till date almost 1,300 entrepreneurs have benefitted from the programme.
The programme has been a success on account of the collaborative effort of the commerce & industries department that has been providing policy support and Meghalaya Basin Management Agency that has been instrumental in implementing the PRIME programme.
The programme has also tied up with institutions such as IIMCIP, Amazon India, Facebook/Meta, Invest India, Pernod Ricard India, NESF and Sauramandala Foundation as knowledge partners.
