Agartala, Aug 17: Marking a significant milestone in Tripura's journey towards becoming a leading hub for innovation, entrepreneurship, and technology-driven growth in North-East India, the Directorate of Information Technology (DIT), Government of Tripura, in collaboration with T-Hub, Hyderabad- India's leading innovation catalyst and pioneer in nurturing startups, today organized the "Building a Unicorn in Tripura" workshop at Pragya Bhavan, Agartala.

The workshop, themed "Building a Unicorn in Tripura," aims to inspire and equip the State's emerging entrepreneurs to build high-growth, scalable ventures. 

According to an official press release, a "Unicorn" refers to a privately held startup valued at over US$1 billion, and the initiative seeks to nurture the next generation of high-growth enterprises from Tripura. The event witnessed the launch of the T-RISE (Tripura Registry & Integration for Startup Ecosystem) Portal and the exchange of strategic Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) with leading industry partners to accelerate startup growth, innovation, and investment in the State.

The workshop reflected the vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has consistently emphasized startups as engines of innovation, employment generation, and the realization of Viksit Bharat. 
Guided by the Startup India initiative, the Government of Tripura is building a vibrant startup ecosystem through progressive policies, robust institutional support, and strategic partnerships to nurture globally competitive enterprises.

In line with this vision, under the visionary leadership of Chief Minister Dr. Manik Saha and the strategic guidance of IT Minister Pranajit Singha Roy, the Government of Tripura has launched the New Sector-Agnostic Tripura Startup Policy, a comprehensive framework to promote innovation, entrepreneurship, and employment generation across all sectors. 

As part of this initiative, DIT has established T-NEST, the State-level incubation centre at the International Business Centre, Hapania, to provide startups with world-class incubation, mentorship, technical guidance, and market linkages. 

To further strengthen the ecosystem, DIT signed a strategic partnership with T-Hub as a knowledge partner, bringing its expertise, global networks, and accelerator programmes to support the implementation of the Startup Policy.

The workshop was inaugurated by IT Minister Pranajit Singha Roy in the presence of Kiran Gitte, Secretary of Information Technology & Finance, Jeya Ragul Geshan B, Director, Information Technology, along with senior Government officials, industry leaders, investors, startup founders, and representatives from academia and innovation ecosystems.

The IT Minister said, Tripura is also moving ahead in full swing as far as startup scenario is concerned. By now Tripura has been recognized as a ‘leader’ in Start-up India Ranking. At present the state has 80 functional start-ups and eight incubators. Moreover, according to Start-up India’s data, the number of women-led start-ups in Tripura has increased remarkably. 

He said, the workshop aims to generate start-up ideas among the youth, to build mentality for making big business out of new start-ups, and build Tripura as an important component of startup eco-system of the country.

The IT Minister further said, Tripura launched its Start-up Eco-system Plan and Start-up Scheme in 2019. This aims at helping the IT-based enterprises, enhancing strength of innovative skill, and generating employment. The government has also taken various initiatives to strengthen the start-up eco-system further. 

He said, this workshop does not merely aims at discussing Tripura’s start-up scenario, but also creating opportunities for the youth to build companies through which employment will be generated, new innovations will come up and competition in the global market will rise. That means startups should not be viewed as mere businesses, but as significant driving force to strengthen the state economy and generate employment. 

Under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India has emerged as one of the biggest start-up eco-systems in the world, stated the minister. Tripura is also trying to be a part this journey. He said, State Innovation Mission was launched at Agartala in February 2026. This mission aims at creating an environment conducive for converging innovative ideas of people with technology and turning them into real businesses.

He emphasized that Tripura is creating an enabling ecosystem through progressive policies, digital infrastructure, and strategic collaborations to attract investment, promote innovation, and generate high-quality employment.

The programme also showcased the encouraging progress achieved under the New Sector-Agnostic Tripura Startup Policy. Since its launch, over 185+ startup applications have been received, 140 registrations approved, and 70 startups recognized. Financial assistance exceeding Rs. 2.72 crore has already been extended through the Tri-Seed Fund, Proof of Concept (PoC) support, and operational assistance, enabling entrepreneurs to transform innovative ideas into scalable ventures.

A major highlight of the event was the launch of the T-RISE Portal a unique, integrated single-window digital platform connecting startups, entrepreneurs, incubators, mentors, investors, academic institutions, and Government departments. 

The portal will provide access to a growing network of 20+ mentors, 10+ investors, 10+ corporates, incubators, and domain experts across technology, finance, marketing, legal, and business strategy, offering structured, on-demand support throughout the entrepreneurial journey. It will also connect Tripura's global professional community of technology leaders, entrepreneurs, and experts with roots in the State, unlocking an important resource for the growth of its startup ecosystem.

The workshop also featured expert-led mentoring sessions by T-Hub covering innovation management, business scaling, fundraising, and market expansion. An inspiring interaction with Tejaswi Bhagavatula, VP, Skyroot Aerospace, and other successful startup founders provided valuable insights into building high-growth enterprises. 

Skyroot Aerospace, India's first space-tech unicorn, has made history with Vikram-S, India's first privately developed rocket, and more recently with Vikram-I, which became the first privately developed Indian rocket to successfully reach orbit from Indian soil. These success stories inspired aspiring entrepreneurs to dream bigger and pursue globally competitive ventures from Tripura.

The workshop reaffirmed the Government of Tripura's commitment to build a future-ready, innovation-driven and pioneering startup ecosystem through progressive policy reforms, world-class incubation support, strategic industry partnerships, and digital innovation. These initiatives are expected to catalyse entrepreneurship, attract investments, create high-value employment opportunities, and firmly position Tripura as a pioneer and emerging destination for startups and innovation in Eastern India, the press release said.

Other speakers at the event included Kiran Gitte, secretary to the Chief Minister, secretary of IT department Dr. Prashant Kumar Goyal, senior vice-president of HDFC Bank Ashis Aggarwal and T-HUB’s CFO Santoshi V. 

The VP of Skyride Aerospace Tejaswi Bhagabatulla had a presentation on start-up achievements. 
Welcome address was delivered by the director of IT department Jeya Raghul Geshan B. Vote of thanks was given by the SIO of IT department Rajdip Chakraborty. 

With the objective of providing financial and technical assistance to the small start-ups of Tripura, the IT department signed MoU with HDFC Bank, Amazon Sellers Service Private Limited and ZOHO Corporation Private Limited. These collaborations will enable startups to access specialized financial products, digital business solutions, e-commerce and export opportunities, cloud technologies, mentorship, technical advisory services, and capacity-building programmes, thereby enhancing their competitiveness in national and global markets.