Home Turf

Entrepreneurs in Assam and Manipur are growing business roots, with some help from government and private initiatives

- Naini Thaker

About 100 km from Guwahati lies the tiny district of Barpeta, where an unmetalled road wide enough for just one vehicle winds its way through lush greenery. On a 0.3 hectare piece of land there, almost entirely covered with dried areca nut leaves, stands Tamul Plates. Set up in 2010 by Arindam Dasgupta (23), the facility produces 10,000 to 20,000 units of tableware made from areca leaves per day.

Although there are multiple companies in Kerala and Karnataka making tableware from areca nut leaves, Dasgupta was the first to do so in the northeast of the country, making use of the region’s abundant natural resources. The company has received a total funding of 45 lakh from Upaya Social Ventures and Rianta Capital, and as Dasgupta says, “is planning to buy 1 hectare land somewhere close by and soon move our production facility there.”

Dasgupta is an example of a new generation of young entrepreneurs who are choosing to set up their fledgling businesses in Assam and Manipur, not just for their abundant natural resources—“We decided to use dried leaf sheaths of areca nut trees to make tableware, but there is so much work being done with bamboo and other resources as well,” he says—but also state government policies, as well as private initiatives.

For instance, Assam has set up an incubation centre, The Nest, in Guwahati along with Indian Institute of Management Calcutta Innovation Park.

Pranjal Konwar, COO of The Nest says, “Assam’s startup policy aims to facilitate the growth of about 1,000 new startups, and create direct and indirect employment for 1 lakh people over five years.” There are other incentives under the policy such as GST reimbursements, lease rental subsidies and power subsidies.