Why Start-ups in Assam are yet considered to be Obscure?

–Kakali Das |

While the metropolitan cities in India are fast emerging as major start-up hubs, claiming international attention over the past many years, the smaller states like Assam have been rather late in joining the start-up bandwagon yet. In a state where entrepreneurship is still a fancy option queuing behind a “more practical’ government job or corporate employment, a professional approach to start is wanting. Though young entrepreneurs from other states scripting stories have managed to inspire the Assamese youths, the latter are yet to master the technical layers of entrepreneurship due to its not-so conducive start-up environment. Alongside the technical factors, ‘society and parents’ plays a pivotal role in thrashing faraway the entrepreneurial mind-set of the youth. Today’s children like to nurture their independent thinking. Days have arrived when the youth are more immersed in creation and engineering their skills in a more refined and independent way. Start-ups give them wings to fly their talents sans being a prisoner of the orthodox; they’ve become quite valorous in undertaking risks in the journey.

Expectations set by societies have a tremendous impact on a country’s creative endeavours.This should bring us closer to more serious questions, such as,Why do developed nations perform better in terms of innovation? What cultural factors impact the way fresh talent develops an outlook towards the creation of new ventures? What can take us closer to countries that have created a legacy of accepting failures and encouraging risk-taking, open-minded thinking?

It all starts very early in primary schools and at our homes. Unknowingly, we in India like to create patterns in educating children. We want them to see things in a particular way. This makes us fall in love with conformity. Any non-conformity arising out of any context is therefore not appreciated by us. This barrier to free-thinking must be broken if we want young minds to welcome newness beyond the obvious. Building a boundary wall, under the garb of a disciplined approach that threatens creative thinking, must be discouraged. As a society, we need to celebrate failure as much as we celebrate success. That there is never only one ‘right way’ forward is something we should learn to accept.

In colleges, there is a fear psychosis at work. The ‘if-then’ philosophy of parents and coaches make students take the path of least resistance. Because the cost of overriding social norms is considered to be very high, many youngsters pay the price of their originality to avoid a loss. Attitudes that emphasise ‘engineering from a top institute of technology’, ‘medical from an eminent medical college’ or ‘B.A, B.Sc., B.Com with CA’ or ‘limited scope for humanities’, hamper the morale of potentially bright folks. They start questioning their inner quest. Simply directing them is capable of taking them forward. Fear of employability and earnings makes their thinking very rigid.

Graduate schools are the best places for young minds to make difference to their career. This is a stage in one’s life when he or she begins to fathom an inner calling to do or avoid things. A narrow focus on the job market or compulsive obsession with post-graduation at this stage is counterproductive. But unfortunately, this is exactly how we train our graduates to think. We want them to be achievers. But our definition of achievement is restricted to ‘first pay package’ or ‘percentile score in PG entrance exam’.

Even if they dare to follow the route, they’re mostly left to learn about the complex aspects of a startupby themselves sans any proessional mentorship.How to develop the idea and make it market ready? How to source the funding? How to market the product? How to create branding and visibility? What should be our medium of product selling? How to take care of the logistics? On account of the dearth of specialised guidance, the aspirants have given up before they could hardly begin. Though Assam has no dearth of academically qualified youths, the state is still wanting in key employability skills. Unfortunately, the average mindset in the state revolves more around ‘studying to get a job than studying to deserve a job’. Having a brilliant idea isn’t enough, one must have a full-proof business model in place.

Innovation-based evaluation at the academic level can helpful. Assigning mandatory projects of innovation to the students of higher secondary could be a bankable option amongst many.