Start-up opportunities in the Northeast

 India has gained prominence as the third-largest start-up ecosystem in the world after the United States and China. Driven by digital innovation, organic ideas for business ventures, and progress in research and development, the number of recognised start-ups in the country has exponentially increased from only 442 in 2016 to more than 92,683 as of February this year. The spectacular growth notwithstanding, multiple challenges, such as funding, a dearth of skilled human resources, infrastructure, and connectivity, continue to grip most Indian start-ups. A slowdown in funding has been a dampener in the overall start-up ecosystem in the country, but it has also sent a clear message to start-ups to focus more on the sustainability of their business models. The number of unicorns—start-up companies with high business values of over 1 billion US dollars—has declined to 83 in 2023 from 84 in 2022, against industry estimates of the number of Indian unicorns growing to 150 by 2025. The Start-up India Initiative, launched in 2016, provided a major policy push for economic growth through financial support to convert innovative entrepreneurial ideas into successful business ventures and promote start-up growth in the country. Three key pillars of this initiative are: simplification and handholding; funding support and incentives; industry-academia partnerships; and incubation. Reducing regulatory compliance, such as labour and environmental laws, allows the start-ups to focus more on their core business and cut down on compliance costs through mobile App-based self-certification. Official data shows that start-ups recognised by the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade are spread across 56 diversified sectors, and more than 15% of these are in sectors like agriculture, healthcare and life science, automotive, telecommunications and networking, and computer vision. With half of the country’s workforce employed in agriculture and allied sectors, agri-tech start-ups in this sector have triggered fresh hopes of addressing productivity challenges with technology-based solutions. An increase in the incidence of extreme weather events due to climate change impacts and global warming has added to sustainability challenges in agriculture and allied sectors. Agri-tech start-ups recognise this challenge while innovating solutions that are crucial for the sustainability of their business ventures. A strong collaboration between the agri-tech start-ups and agricultural scientists, research laboratories, and climate scientists can help innovating sustainable solutions. Inadequate infrastructure and logistics in the business value chain in agriculture and allied sectors, from farm gate to markets, more particularly in the northeast region, limit the dreams of entrepreneurs. Seamless connectivity from the production clusters to markets and adequate storage solutions can ignite innovative ideas among agri-entrepreneurs to come up with technological solutions to overcome climate change challenges in agriculture and allied sectors. Until now, addressing these challenges has remained mostly limited to improvements in traditional practises, farm mechanisation, the availability of climate-resilient seeds, and fertiliser-based solutions. Start-ups can help bridge the persistent knowledge gap between these solutions and traditional farmers by innovating technology-based applications that make it easier for farm communities to adopt the solutions and also understand the importance of technology-based applications to build resilience against climate change. With global communities striving hard to achieve the goal of limiting global warming to mitigate climate change’s impact, opportunities for green start-ups that have initiated business ventures by innovating climate-driven solutions to raise more venture capital have grown. The Northeast region, being an organic hub by default, offers great opportunities for Start-up growth, with the government pushing initiatives like Mission Organic Value Chain Development with the objective of diversifying the export basket with unique organic products from the region and doubling farmers’ income. This brings new opportunities for the growth of agri-tech and green start-ups in the region, which can tap the huge business potential. The rapid spread of digital payment systems in the region along with the rest of India has now made it possible for entrepreneurs to easily link their businesses with farm producers, banks, governments, suppliers, and buyers. Weaving, being a traditional cultural practise among all indigenous communities in the northeast region, has huge untapped business potential, like agriculture and allied sectors, but the handloom and textile sectors in the region are stagnating due to a dearth of innovative ideas and business solutions. This is where entrepreneurs looking to set up their start-ups can step in and explore new business ideas and solutions backed by quality research and patents. Universities and research institutions can support those entrepreneurs in giving shape to their innovative ideas with quality research and the innovation of technology-based solutions to initiate their start-ups. As big investors are yet to show their interest in investing in the region, promotion of start-ups to unlock the business potential in agriculture, handloom, and textiles, as well as other sectors in the northeast, can be expected to significantly improve the economy of the landlocked region. States in the region, with the support of the central government, need to create the required ecosystem for entrepreneurs to enable them to pursue innovative business ideas.