Guwahati News Desk: North East India has always been known for its rich bio-diversity and abundant natural resources across the nation as the economy of the region mainly depends upon the agricultural sector.
In recent time, the immense emphasis has been laid on developing and nurturing entrepreneurs and startup organization in the nation which would create jobs in the field of Agri and allied-Agri sectors, especially in Northeast India.
The single point agenda of creating an enabling environment for the agriculture-based startups, North East Agriculture Technology Entrepreneurs Hub (NEATEHUB), which started its journey in the field of Agri sector in 2018 as a section 8 not-for-profit company established under the aegis of the Assam Agricultural University (AAU) Jorhat, is to build a robust innovation-led startup ecosystem in the region.
To this end, NEATEHUB has been supported under the flagship scheme Atal Innovation Mission (AIM) of NITI Aayog and RKVY-RAFTAAR ((Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana – Remunerative Approaches for Agriculture and Allied Sectors Rejuvenation). The scheme implemented by DAC&FW (Department of Agri Cooperation and Farmers Welfare’ under MoA & FW, GoI (Govt. of India). It is ably supported by Assam Agricultural University with its best-in-class Innovation hub to facilitate absorption and commercialization of various Agri and allied-agri technologies for promoting ventures and businesses.
NEATEHUB is an incubator which can be termed as a breeding ground for the startups. The word incubator in itself resonates with “a bird sitting on eggs nurturing and hatching them, taking care of the hatchlings and enabling them to fly”. In the context of business too, an incubator has a similar purpose and intent – to allow a fledgeling business to be given ambient environment and resources, nurture and care for its growth until they learn to move on from the Incubator.
The incubatees at NEATEHUB covers an array of the domain including horticulture, livestock, fisheries, food processing, soil conditioning, natural fibre, textile, medicinal and aromatic plants and small farm machinery etc. Apart from this NEATEHUB is one of a kind incubator in the region which emphasizes solely on the agri and allied services. In addition, specialized pre-incubation training, admin, accounting and legal services for the startups are provided.
High quality personalized mentoring and coaching for business growth is given to the budding entrepreneurs. North East is a tribal-dominated region special fellowships opportunities for tribal youths are also on the anvil.
Apart from physical co-working space, NEATEHUB offers support services in the form of industry linkages and networking, training and business coaching, technology transfer and IP portfolio management, legal and quality assurance services, seed funding and access to investment. It is a one-point contact to angel investors, mentors, corporate and VC funds interested to invest in agribusinesses.
NEATEHUB presently is offering two programmes Isanya (pre-seed ) and Saranya (seed stage). Isanya is a two-month residential agri entrepreneurship orientation programme (with/without stipend) for entrepreneurs who are at an idea stage – which need curation, refining and nurturing the idea into a product/service. Saranya, on the other hand, is a start-up incubation programme for early-stage and growth-stage start-up companies who are already registered as a legal entity, and need mentoring and funding support for scaling up.
NEATEHUB is headquartered in Jorhat in the sprawling Assam Agricultural University campus. NEATEHUB is also handholding the establishment of three agri-business incubators one each in Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram and Tripura. NEATEHUB now invites applications from start-ups from the Agri-sector under its start-up programmes ISANYA 4.0 and SARANYA 3.0 for agripreneurship orientation and startup incubation respectively. The last date of application is 6th December 2020.
Interested people can visit www.neatehub.org for submitting their applications.
Facebook link- https://www.facebook.com/search/top?q=aau%20neatehub
Instagram- https://www.instagram.com/aauneatehub_/
Twitter- Eastagri
Website- www.neatehub.org
Linkedin- https://www.linkedin.com/in/aau-neatehub-1990611a8/
.