NERAMAC's green innovation pitch for Northeast students

GUWAHATI: NERAMAC (North East Regional Agricultural Marketing Corporation Ltd) hosted the 1st Green Innovation Pitch, a first of its kind start-up competition to encourage agri-horti food processing early stage innovations from the student fraternity of the region to present their ideas and prototype to eminent panellists from Government, industry and academia.

A jury with rich experience and expertise evaluated the pitches and assured handholding support & linkages for scale up. The event was held at the Krishi Bhavan here, stated a press release.

The event witnessed overwhelming response from the student community and 35 teams from 12 different educational institutions across the region participated in it. The competition had a series of rewards & recognition (cash prizes up to Rs 50,000) in identifying Green Innovations amongst the students, mentors and institutions.

North East India and Assam is blessed with natural resources. The region primarily being driven by an agrarian economy, the youth, specially the students, should focus on the agri-horti food processing sector to brainstorm and bring out value-added products and services with technological intervention to take it to the next level - Be Vocal for Local to Global. The true sense of knowledge is not intelligence but imagination and information blended for innovation. NERAMAC thus envisages building the agricultural & horticulture start-up ecosystem by facilitating institutional participation of the student community by bridging the gap in a more inclusive way with partnerships & linkages.

The day's session began with felicitation of many prominent dignitaries from the agriculture & horticulture sector. The opening speech was delivered by Manoj Kumar Das, MD of NERAMAC, wherein he highlighted the organization's initiative in building the Green start-up ecosystem. Tiranga Bhartiya Borah, Director, Horticulture and Food Processing, Government of Assam graced the event as Chief Guest and urged the student fraternity to take up entrepreneurship in the sector. Bakul Saikia, State Nodal Officer of MOVCDNER, emphasized the need to explore the organic value chain of North-East India through innovative plans. Achinta Kumar Baruah, former faculty of IIE and Bibhuti Dutta, Director, North-East India PHD Chamber of Commerce, assured all possible handholding and mentoring support to the aspiring start-ups of the sector.

Start-up is the new normal which was evident from the energy and enthusiasm demonstrated by the students in putting forward innovative ideas from bamboo wine to sugar-free chocolates to gluten-free noodles. There were technical pitches for flood control of farmland through eco-friendly bamboo structure to smart agri monitoring system using AI & ML along with innovation around algal biofertilizer and multiple biosensor to mention a few.

The 1st prize was bagged by the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Shillong, followed by students from Assam Down Town University and University of Science & Technology, Meghalaya. Guides and mentors from Royal Global University (RGU), ADTU and USTM were also recognized for their continued commitment and contribution towards inspiring the students. Further, the USTM received a special certificate of appreciation for its efforts towards developing sustainable Green Campus Innovation Ecosystem.

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