Manipur CM Launches New Start-Up Venture; Provide Employment Opportunities To Every Household

The Manipur Chief Minister – N. Biren Singh launched the Venture Fund for Manipur Startup Scheme 2.0 in collaboration with North Eastern Development Finance Corporation Limited (NEDFi) on Saturday.

It aims to support viable, scalable and innovative firms through equity or equity-linked investments, thereby providing employment opportunities to every household.

In this regard, a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between the Government of Manipur and NEDFi to establish the venture fund for Manipur. The fund will have an initial corpus of Rs 30 Crores.

Taking to social media platforms, the Manipur CM wrote “Happy to launch the Manipur Startup Venture Fund to support viable, scalable and innovative ventures based in Manipur through equity or equity linked investments. In this regard, an MoU was signed between the Government of Manipur and NEDFi to establish the venture fund for Manipur. The fund which will have an initial corpus of Rs 30 Crore was formally launched today.The fund targets to invest in more than 50 startups from the state with investments ranging from Rs 10 lakh to Rs 3 Crores per startup. The Planning Department will be the Nodal Agency of the fund and NEDFi Venture Capital Fund will manage the fund.”

Since the formation of the state administration in 2017, around 6000 startups has been given financial assistance under the scheme till date.

The Manipur CM remarked that the Startup Scheme assisted entrepreneurs to expand their undertakings and turn the youth from job seekers to job creators.

Expressing confidence on the future of youth, Singh informed that Rs. 10 Crores has been sanctioned for Imphal West, Imphal East and Churachandpur District to set up Youth Skill Centre. While, Rs 5 Crores each is sanctioned for Senapati, Ukhrul and Chandel Districts.

Citing that various initiatives, like ‘Go To Village’ and ‘Go To Hills’ initiated to bring inclusive development across the state, the Manipur CM mentioned that various meetings are convened to streamline the developmental projects.

He raised concern that only few citizens with innovative ideas had been approached to get the benefits of the Startup Scheme, and stressed the need for the state’s youth to attain expertise in the IT sector.

Informing that the corpus fund set aside for the Manipur Startup Scheme has been enhanced from Rs 30 Crores to 100 Crores, the CM appealed the youth to avail benefits of the scheme.