Excelsior Correspondent
AIZAWL (MIZORAM), Dec 16: During his one day visit to Mizoram today, Prime Minister Narendra Modi handed over the first lot of cheques of the, first -of- its- kind, “Venture Capital Fund” introduced by the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) to promote young Start-ups in Northeast.
In his over 40-minute speech on the occasion, Prime Minister Modi made a special mention of “Venture Capital Fund” introduced by the Ministry of Northeast and said that this will be a major booster for young entrepreneurs and young Start-ups in the region. He also mentioned the path-breaking decision taken by the Union Cabinet yesterday to provide 100% Central funding for the projects in Northeast under a new scheme called “North-East Special Infrastructural Development Scheme” (NESIDS) through the Ministry of DoNER.
Pertinent to mention that Prime Minister Modi had launched unique “Start-up India, Stand-up India” scheme for young entrepreneurs over two years ago, which includes distinct features like provision of a tax-holiday and provision of exit period for a young Start-up. Soon after that, the Ministry of Development of North-Eastern Region decided to add, through its own resources, an additional feature of providing “Venture Capital Fund” to any youngster who decides to set up an establishment in the Northeast. For this purpose, the Ministry of DoNER has already deposited Rs.100 crore as viability and will operate through North Eastern Development Finance Corporation Ltd (NEDFi).
Highlighting some of the initiatives taken by his government in the last three years, Prime Minister made a special mention of “DoNER at Doorstep” initiative of the Ministry of DoNER wherein, every month, by rotation, the officials of the DoNER Ministry set up a Camp Office / Secretariat in each of the eight States, by turn. He also underlined that in the last over three years, over 150 visits to the North-Eastern region have been undertaken by different Ministers in the Union Council, which is quite in contrast to the past practice when there were hardly any visits by Union Ministers to this region.
Modi described Mizoram as a State endowed with rich resources and people who are talented and hard-working, and said, the Government of India is committed to ensure their equitable development with other parts of the country.
Dr Jitendra Singh, while speaking on the occasion, thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for handing over the first lot of cheques of “Venture Capital Fund” for Start-Ups, introduced by his Ministry. He said, this initiative has proved to be very popular and if we succeed in achieving our targets, it is sure that Northeast would, one day, become a favorite destination for young Start-ups from all over India.
Among the recent initiatives for Northeast, Dr Jitendra Singh said, there were two particular initiatives which deserved special thanks to the Prime Minister. These included the important decision to provide 100% Central funding to Northeast projects through Ministry of DoNER. And second was removing the “Bamboo” from “India Forest Act of 1927” and designating it as “grass” when grown in the non-forest land, he added.
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