CM’s E-Champ Challenge: Hunt for Entrepreneurs continues in Meghalaya
By Ibankyntiew Mawrie | Shillong, Nov 17:
A first of its kind initiative in the state of Meghalaya, the Chief Minister's E-Champion Challenge, a platform to identify and tap the entrepreneurial potentials, has "successfully" explored the length and breadth of this hilly state, giving aspiring entrepreneurs a chance to show the world what their ideas and innovations are capable of.
From the hamlets of Khasi Hills to Garo Hills, young and old entrepreneurswith the potential to change the economic landscape of the state have comeforward to pitch their ideas on how to break the chains of dependency, torescue the state from the problem of unemployment, to promote local and naturalproducts and to become job creators rather than job seekers.
A gathering of these aspiring entrepreneurs was witnessed on November 16 at Pastoral Institute in Shillong during the boot-camp session organized by the Meghalaya Institute of Entrepreneurship (MIE) in collaboration with IIM-Calcutta Innovation Park (IIM-CIP) and Meghalaya Basin Development Authority (MBDA).
What is the e-Champ all about?
The CM's E Champion Challenge was launched in August 14, 2019 by ChiefMinister Conrad K Sangma. The Challenge is the first critical step in order tokick start large scale and long term enterprise incubation strategy. Theobjective of this program is to promote the spirit of entrepreneurship and enterpriseeco-system in Meghalaya, to identify individuals and groups with the mostpromising business ideas and ventures through a fair, transparent and rigorousprocess of selection, to encourage the people of the state (especially theyouth) and support them to avail growing opportunities of entrepreneurship instate, to provide a statewide platform for individuals and groups to thinkentrepreneurially while enabling them to realize their entrepreneurialambitions in the state, to highlight and showcase existing and emergingentrepreneurs from the state and to provide them recognition, rewards and rangeof support mechanisms in maturing their business idea for growing theirbusiness.
This program consists of three phases –
First Phase: Calling for online applications and touring the entirestate to identify potential entrepreneurs followed by the announcement of Top100 applicants
Second Phase: To train the applicants on how to pitch their ideas topotential investors (Bootcamp and pitching session), with applicants being mentoredby experts from IIM-CIP. This phase will also include the selection of Top 50applicants.
Third Phase: Selection of Top 25 applicants and a Summit to be held inTura.
The program will conclude with the 1st E-Champ Summit to be held in Shillong in the month of December, which will be attended by Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma, who will also inaugurate the two incubation centres in Shillong and Tura.
Over 700 applications received
One of the officials of the program, Shweta Raj Kanwar informed thatcandidates from all over the state mostly from Khasi Hills and Garo Hillsapplied for the Challenge where 345 of them completed the registration and 103were selected for the boot-camp session in the first phase. She said thatcandidates with varied and unique ideas in the field of technology,agriculture, horticulture, education, etc took part in the challenge.
Screening criteria
- Innovation
- Leveraging the core competence of Meghalaya
- Establish Local and Global Connect
- Position Meghalaya Internationally
- Create local jobs
- Green and Environmentally responsible
- Inclusive and Developmental oriented
- New Age Technology centric
- Conventional Wisdom centric
- Scalable and Sustainable
Why this Challenge? MIE Director explains …
MIE Director Barnari L. Mawlong explained the entire process that goes into the formation of this challenge. He pointed out that for the first time in Meghalaya, we are having an incubation hub for entrepreneurs. "If you look around, you'll see youths looking for government jobs which are very scarce in this day and age; even in private sector, jobs are scarce; so the government is looking at way to promote entrepreneurship, to help them stand on their own feet, to become job creators. And we are not only targeting the youths; ideas are ageless, it can also come from an elderly person," he said.
When asked about the response, Mawlong said that since this is a new thing in Meghalaya, it took some time for the people to get to know about the program. "We went around and visited educational institutions in the city; we talked to students about this imitative, try to get feelers from youngsters, especially those who are about to graduate; and the response, initially, was lukewarm, but the moment CM launched it online, we went for orientation programmes throughout the state, to all district headquarters; then things started picking up and by the time we finish the tour, the online response started picking up. For the state which is doing this for the first time, the response is really really good," he added.
What about Rural Folks?
The MIE director said that no one was left out. He said, through these orientationprogrammes which were held throughout the length and breadth of the state ofMeghalaya, MIE had partnered with the deputy commissioners' office, districtbasin development units, and some officers from industry department along withthe reach and influence of the DCs. "We used all that including the commonservice centres to reach out to the people and provide assistance and handholdingrequired for villagers who does not know how to apply online," he said.
Is language and technology a barrier?
Replying in the negative, Mawlong said "We are looking for ideas so languageis not a barrier; After speaking to quite a few of them, we have come to noticethat some of them are really good in communicating and pitching their ideas intheir local dialects. Then some have raised the issue of technology and we havemade it very clear that technology is also not a barrier; some of them who don'thave a laptop or a PC have expressed concerns on how to prepare their power-pointpresentations to pitch their ideas – but that shouldn't stop them frompresenting their brilliant ideas in the conventional method – a plain paper.
When asked whether this initiative will be made into an annual event,MIE director said it depends on the response of the people. "Right now, theresponse is limited to the competition; beyond this we will be having the hubswhere we will be mentoring and supporting these entrepreneurs through thesehubs; so we will see if the response is really good then maybe our higherauthorities will take a call on it; whether or not we should turn into anannual affair or maybe a cyclical event," he added.
Partnership with IIM-CIP
The MIE director informed that having seen the experiences and the success rate of IIM-CIP in this field, the government has chosen the educational institute as their technology partners where evaluations at the back end are being done by them and these evaluation are spread throughout the country. "There is no biasness, we only looking at their ideas. But now, since we have already selected the Top 100; by looking at them, I think the ideas are pretty good and quite varied also," said Mawlong.
IIM-CIP's Observation
CEO of IIM-CIP, Prof Subhrangshu Sanyan pointed out that one thing whichis common in Northeast is the potentiality. The youths of the region havepotentials and are very keen to really try out something different which peoplefrom outside will not understand that, he said adding that "When you engagewith them, we see that they have talent and sense of seriousness; maybe theyneed a little of handholding, guidance; now it is our responsibility to polishtheir skills and utilize the potentials that is there. Government is tryingthis wonderful initiative in Meghalaya and the important thing is that it ismore inclusive, it reaches out to district levels as opposed to other majorcities like Bangalore or Delhi which is more focused in cities. If thisinitiative is done well, it will create a large scale social impact."
Having worked in Assam and Mizoram, Sanyan said that each northeaststate has a different culture, different social dynamics; "so we cannot copy-pasteor replicate same thing; it has to be customized based on the needs of therespective states. We have seen the success in the two states and here we arevery confident that we will see success but we might need to adapt to the localneeds. It is a learning experience," he added.
Here lies the strength of Meghalaya
The expert said the strength here is natural resources, agriculture; naturally we had more application from that domain; but along with that, we also had IT, handicraft, cultural aspects; so it reflects the cultural and strength of Meghalaya; same thing we saw in Assam and Mizoram. These entrepreneurs can grow only if they have the right exposure and right mentoring. The potential they have should be properly leveraged.
We are talking about converting the job seekers to job givers. Ideally wewould like the youths to think on those lines, how to create value butpractically, we can't expect everybody to be entrepreneurs. But to create largenumber of employment, we first have to create large number of job opportunitiesand job givers. This initiative is trying to do that and if this is successfulas a natural pool, the unemployed youths will be associated with it and thevery fact that it is inclusive; the benefit of this programme will reach to everycorner of Meghalaya.
Northeast and Its Potentials
As an organization, Prof Sanyan said, our aim is to create a strong eco system in east and northeast because this part of the country currently doesn't figure prominently in the national entrepreneurship radar. And we want to make a change, so our vision is, maybe in two-three years down the line; the entire northeast ecosystem becomes vibrant. And if we look at India's Look and Act East Policy, Northeast is still a strategic corridor, so if we can energized the northeast, that itself will energize the economy of India through this policy.
What the selected applicants have to say …
Dlesgrecia Sten (42) from Umroi in Ri Bhoi, owns a tea stall in Umroi where she serves unique recipes. It has been six years since she started her shop. She got information about the initiative from some of her friends and later visited the Basin office in Umsning to clear her doubts. Officials helped her fill the online registration and she is now one of the top 100 selected for the challenge. "I am really happy that I got this chance to pitch my ideas, to compete with others. I hope to expand her business and employ more people from the village."
Sainkupar Syngkli (20) from Nongpoh in Ri Bhoi is one of the founders of El Elyon Institute of Technology, which is an ISO recognized institute. It provides courses to deprived students of the district in the field of computer applications, media communication, English, and information technology. "We see many of the students of the district do not have the luxury to study in the cities like Shillong and Guwahati. So through this institute, we are equipping them with the basic knowledge in all the subjects mentioned above. This is a really good initiative for us young entrepreneurs; it also serves as an encourage for us, it shows that the government also cares about us," he said.
Lastnokhel Jalong (45) from Khweing village in Ri Bhoi owns the MS Jalong Traditional Dress Making unit. He has been involved in handloom and weaving business for 7 years now. What is unique about his cottage industry is the use of natural ingredients for dying the clothes. "I hope to expand my business and this challenge is a perfect platform as it gives us an opportunity to learn more about the market, to connect to potential partners, to pitch our ideas to investors. It is a good initiative and it gives us a sense of encouragement," he said.
Catherine Dohling (33) from Shillong is involved in the e-commerce business with her partner, Trideep Rabha (33). They have been running NE Store for 4 years now. Through this e-commerce website, they sell products made in Northeast India to the rest of the country like food products, handicraft, handloom and the likes. "What entrepreneurs here lack is the confidence to sell our products. And in this session, we were taught how to pitch our ideas and sell our products. It is a perfect platform to connect with potential business partners, customers; to build our network," said Catherine.
