Professor Ajanta Borgohain Rajkonwar, the Honourable Vice Chancellor of the Assam Women’s University, was the Chief Guest at the launch event. In her inaugural address, she emphasized the need to identify innovations at the grassroots level and promote them. Padmashri Smt. Lakhimi Baruah, founder of Konoklata Women Urban Co-operative Bank, spoke on how the Women's Bank, run by women, was started initially to empower the women financially in the community. Smt. Olee Bora, General Manager of NEDFi, delivered the keynote address. She spoke on various schemes of NEDFi for the entrepreneurs and the support that NEDFi provides to the entrepreneurs of North East. On the occasion, an MoU was signed between Bosco Institute and Mariani College.
Mr. Ranjan Dutta, Associate Professor, represented Mariani College. Other dignitaries who attended the inaugural programme were Shri Gautam Deb Nath, GM, DICC, Jorhat, Prof. Nitin Vishwakarma, Officiating Director, NID, Jorhat, Smt. Purnima Dutta Phukan, Chairperson, Konoklata Mahila Urban Co-op Bank, Dr. Ashrafuzzaman Chowdhury from JB College, Smt. Jyotsana Brijwal, Lead Dist. Manager, Jorhat (Punjab National Bank), Shri. Mantu Das, DDM, NABARD, Dr. Bisheswar Haorangbam from NID, Jorhat, Dr. Suryya Kr. Chetia, HOD, Deptt. Of Mass Communication, Assam Women University, Shri Pankaj Baruah, Head, Portfolio Management of IIM CIP, Smt. Nabanita Neog, Supervisor, ITI, Jorhat and the faculty members and students from these institutions and colleges.
The entrepreneurs also displayed a wide range of products like handloom and handicrafts, local savouries, food processing, recycled cloth products and tech products and shared their entrepreneurial journey with the dignitaries and the guests. The guests admired the exhibition/sale by all the women entrepreneurs from various states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya and Nagaland. The distinguished guests included students from nearby colleges and institutions. The NE Vent3- Incubation training programme aims to empower and encourage women entrepreneurs in the North-East Region.
The Hub Jorhat began its first cohort for the NE-Vent incubation programme in March 2020 and completed it in February 2022. Cohort 1 comprised 6 incubates from Assam, Nagaland, and Tripura. There were 21 incubators in the second cohort from Assam, Nagaland, Mizoram, Meghalaya, and Manipur. It began in December 2022 and was completed by May 2023, wherein a pitching platform was introduced. In the pitching event, 24 incubators participated (3 incubators from the first cohort). Every incubator got to pitch their idea to a panel of experts, and the final selection was categorized based on specific criteria; the top 5 champions received 1.5 lakhs each, the next 10 received one lakh each, and the remaining nine received 50 thousand each.
The Hub Jorhat is an initiative of the Bosco Institute to foster innovation and entrepreneurship in the region. We believe that entrepreneurship is a dignified way of attaining financial security, social stability and ecological sustainability in diverse cultures, traditional wisdom and native skills and abundantly blessed by nature. The Hub, with training halls, co-working space, maker space, innovation lab, media lab, etc., was officially inaugurated in January 2022. The Hub focuses on entrepreneurship development in areas people are good at and using natural resources.
Fr. Santosh Mundu, SDB
Source: Don Bosco India
