3rd Edition of the Capacity Building workshop for Entrepreneurship Development & Export Oriented Skills

The 3rd Edition of the Capacity Building workshop for Entrepreneurship Development & Export Oriented Skills organized by the Indian Chamber of Commerce in collaboration with PRIME Meghalaya took place on the 16th & 17th February, 2023 at the PRIME Startup Hub, Shillong in the presence of entrepreneurs, esteemed speakers and the PRIME team.

The workshop commenced with a welcome address from Mr. P.W. Ingty, IAS (Retd.), Chairman Meghalaya State Council, Indian Chamber of Commerce where he emphasized on entrepreneurship as the core strategy for the development of the state. He adds “substantial efforts have been made in the last few years for capacity building and creating an ecosystem that will encourage growth and development. Significant policy and programme interventions have been made for creating an ecosystem that encourages and supports innovation for the local people of the state.”

The speakers on the 1st Day of Workshop are:

1.       Mrs. Eden Grace Rajee Asst. Manager, Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI), Shillong who spoke about the assistance that SIDBI offers like working capital, term loan, equity support amongst others for the entrepreneurs and MSME sector.

2.       Ms. Emily Singha Brisohbar, General Manager & Regional Head, Central Warehousing Corporation who presented on Logistics & Warehousing.

3.       Shri. Harshvardhan, Additional Director General, National Academy of Customs, Indirect Taxes & Narcotics (NACIN), Zonal Training Institute (ZTI), Govt. of India educated the participants on the different important customs procedures that exporters ought to know as Custom Rules & Regulations are very essential while exporting products.

The session then concluded with an interactive session between the participants and speakers both physically and virtually.

The 2nd day workshop had distinguished speakers from different fields/ sector and had discussion on different topics like Trade Mark & Geographical Indication, Financing of MSME, Design Management, Packaging and Organic Certification, Market Linkages and more.

The Speakers of the 2nd Day are:

1.       Mr. N Babu, Deputy Registrar of Trade Marks & GI Trade Marks Registry, Kolkata, DPIIT, Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Govt of India.

2.       Mr. Peeyush Ranjan Swain, AGM (SME) State Bank of Shillong spoke about the Pradhan Mantri MUDRA Yojana (PMMY) and the Stand-Up Scheme which can be availed by the entrepreneurs.

3.       Mr. Sujit K Mohanty, Asst. Professor National Institute of Fashion Technology during his session spoke about the importance of understanding the market to have a clear vision of taking forward one business with regards to Design, Management & Technology.

4.       Mr. Bidhan Das, Deputy Director & Regional Head Indian Institute of Packaging, Kolkata Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Govt. of India shared about different innovative ideas of packaging and how one can promote export market.

5.       Mr. R.S. Nongbri, Asst Director (I/C) MSME- Development Institute, Shillong, Meghalaya about the benefit one can avail with Udyam registration for entrepreneur under different scheme loan, public procurement policy.

6.       Dr. Saju Adhikary, Business Development Manager Agricultural & Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA), Ministry of Commerce & Industry, Govt. of India gave a presentation on the organic certification and market linkage.

The workshop had an interactive session between the participants and speakers that helped entrepreneur address their concern and doubts related to their existing business and how they can take help of Govt. schemes to their own benefit in expanding their business.

KH