The first day of a capacity building workshop for entrepreneurship development and export oriented skills took place today at the PRIME Hub, Shillong, with more than 70 entrepreneurs in attendance.
The workshop is being supported by the Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry.
The programme commenced with a welcome address by Chairman of the Meghalaya State Council of the Indian Chamber of Commerce and retired IAS officer, PW Ingty, where he emphasised on entrepreneurship as the core strategy for the development of the state.
Eden Grace Rajee, Assistant Manager at the Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI), Shillong, spoke about the assistance that SIDBI offers, like working capital, term loans and equity support, among others for entrepreneurs and MSME sector.
Emily Singha Brisohbar, General Manager and Regional Head of the Central Warehousing Corporation, spoke virtually about the Warehousing Development and Regulatory Authority (WDRA), an initiative by the Indian government to regulate and ensure implementation of the provisions of the Warehousing Act 2007 for the development and regulation of warehouses.
She added that the WDRA has been implemented in six states in the North East, though Meghalaya is not yet one of them.
She also invited entrepreneurs to register themselves with the WDRA so that they would have easy market links across India.
Harshvardhan, Additional Director General of the National Academy of Customs, Indirect Taxes & Narcotics (NACIN), Zonal Training Institute (ZTI), briefed on the Capacity Building Commission, an initiative by the central government to provide trainings and workshops to individuals in organisations. He also said that capacity is indeed a very important aspect of the Act East Policy where he stressed that “unless we develop this region, the Act East Policy will not be successful.”