Agartala, July 08: In an initiative to transform Tripura into a leading ‘Start-up Hub’ of the Northeast, Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb has on Monday last launched a programme- Start up week in virtual presence of Union Minister for Information Technology Ravi Sankar Prasad.

According to Deb, the start-up Tripura initiative would improve the IT sector of the state as well as generate employment scopes since the state has direct access to the market in neighbouring Bangladesh .

“Tripura is geographically a small state but there is no requirement of a big area for start-up. The neighbouring Bangladesh market is the big advantage for Tripura which can be effective financially,” Deb wrote on his official Facebook handle.

Around 2000 youths, Deb said, got connected with the Start-up Tripura programme on the first day. Expressing hope, Deb said the start-up Tripura programme as initiated by the Tripura government would become an inspiration for the young generation of the entire North East region.

Taking part in the programme virtually, the Union Minister encouraged the startups and innovators in Tripura to take advantage of these facilities and contribute towards digital development of Tripura.

“Addressed the Tripura Startup Week and inaugurated the Tripura Startup incubation Centre established in collaboration with STPI and NASSCOM. Encouraged the startups and innovators in Tripura to take advantage of these facilities and contribute towards digital development of Tripura,” Union Minister for IT Ravi Sankar Prasad said in a post on Koo.

According to a government press release, the start-up Tripura is an initiative to turn Tripura into a leading start-up hub which will escalate the dream of Prime Minister Narendra Modi of ‘Digital India’ encouraging entrepreneurial mindset, creating career opportunities and providing necessary supports to budding start-ups in collaboration with several stakeholders such NASSCOM (a billion-dollar IT BPM industry in India), STPI (Software Technology Park of India) etc.

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been signed between the state government and NASSCOM as implementation partner and STPI as incubation partner.

The initiative will help entrepreneurs through start-up funds, support emerging start-ups, grow new age businesses and allied services, create new employment opportunities transforming India into a digital entity, it will also have dedicated policy intervention and therefore aiding development and growth of the state.

Tripura is the first among North-east states to have such institutional collaboration with NASSCOM, the release said.

Chief Secretary Kumar Alok, Secretary, Government of India Ajay Prakash Sawhney, NASSCOM president Debjani Ghosh, STPI director general Dr. Omkar Rai, business person Anil Agarwal, Flipkart CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy and others took part in the online event.

The Flipkart CEO welcomed Tripura to take the leap of faith for Start-up Tripura as this initiative would help in various ways such as infrastructural support, management support. The NASSCOM president lauded the Chief Minister’s initiative and said the organization was committed to create a meaningful impact in the journey.

The Chief Minister also unboxed ‘iSync’, a plug-in device that connects all electrical appliances at home to one smartphone app making devices smarter created by Tripura-based Start-up company iLogitron Solutions Pvt Ltd.

More information on Start-up Tripura will be available at http://tripura.gov.in and startup.tripura.gov.in.