Guwahati: Even as India’s GDP charts new highs and the Northeast gains prominence in national strategic priorities, Manipur remains a glaring outlier—its economic integration into the national mainstream is tenuous at best.
The state’s GDP contribution is marginal, stifled by systemic barriers: poor infrastructure, weak logistics, and near-absent capital markets.
Since May 2023, ethnic clashes between Meitei and Kuki-Zo communities have crippled Manipur’s economy, leaving over 260 dead and thousands displaced. President’s Rule, imposed in February 2025, capped months of unrest. GST collections have shrunk 19%, while inflation spiked to 9.7% in September 2023.
Yet, amidst this fragility, the Manipur Technology Innovation Hub (MTI-HUB)—an initiative of the Department of Information Technology, Government of Manipur, implemented by KIIT-TBI, KIIT University, Bhubaneswar—is working to build a resilient startup ecosystem.
In an exclusive interview with Business North East (BNE), Rajiv Kangabam, PhD, Manager of MTI-HUB, laid bare the challenges.
“Manipur faces a unique confluence of geographic, infrastructural, and economic disadvantages. Our hilly terrain, fragile connectivity, and limited industrial base have historically constrained integration with the mainstream economy,” Kangabam told BNE.
“Manipur's geographical and infrastructural limitations have historically hindered its economic integration. Logistics costs remain high, power reliability is an issue, and digital infrastructure in rural areas still lacks robustness. The absence of industries and an entrepreneurial mindset further reduce the potential of job creation, leading to a mismatch between qualifications and market demands,” he added.
MTI-HUB is tackling these issues by establishing decentralised innovation nodes across districts, supporting startups that require minimal physical infrastructure—such as bio-innovation and agri-value addition enterprises, Kangabam mentioned.
The Hub also acts as a policy intermediary, voicing the structural challenges faced by startups to both state and central governments. According to Kangabam, the goal is to drive infrastructure parity across the region.
Manipur’s startup ecosystem suffers from an acute lack of formal capital access. Angel and venture capital networks are virtually absent, and traditional banks remain risk-averse, Kangabam states.
Kangabam acknowledging the capital bottleneck and says MTI-HUB is exploring revenue-based financing platforms, social impact funds, and NBFCs like the North Eastern Development Finance Corporation (NEDFi) to open alternative financing channels.
“We are also experimenting with micro equity and blended finance models for sectors like agritech, healthtech, and craft-based enterprises,” Kangabam shared.
He further noted that while early-stage grants like the Startup India Seed Fund Scheme (SISFS), BIRAC, DBT, DST, and RKVY-RAFTAR provide critical seed funding, the gap widens post-seed.
“The deal flow in Manipur is mostly at ideation and prototype stages. There’s a significant "funding cliff" after seed rounds due to the lack of Series-A and growth-stage investors willing to bet on the region,” Kangabam explained.
To address this, MTI-HUB is working on soft-landing partnerships with metro-based incubators, helping startups register in dual geographies (Manipur + Tier-1 cities), and preparing founders for structured diligence processes required for higher ticket funding. The Hub is also in active dialogue with Startup India and the
Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) to push for the creation of a Northeast-focused venture capital fund to bridge this growth-stage gap.
Since inception, MTI-HUB has incubated 60+ startups, of which over 20 have started generating consistent revenues, facilitated approximately Rs 5 crore in early-stage funding, hosted more than 50 mentoring and capacity-building programs, and supported over 10 startups in national-scale exhibitions. Sectors showing early promise include agri-value addition, handloom-tech and digital crafts, electric mobility and energy-efficient technologies, biotech-based wellness and personal care products, and food processing enterprises such as black rice wine startups.
Agritech and agri-processing are central to MTI-HUB's ecosystem strategy. Kangabam emphasised the hub’s focus on business fundamentals, “Our incubation approach is grounded in business modeling, pricing strategies, and customer discovery to ensure a faster time-to-revenue for our startups.”
Given Manipur’s predominantly agrarian economy, agritech and agri-processing remain at the core of MTI-HUB’s ecosystem strategy. Several agritech startups have secured market linkages beyond state borders through national expos and platforms, while the Hub, in collaboration with the Manipur Organic Mission Agency, is now exploring export potential in select agri-value chains, Kangabam mentioned.
While handloom and handicrafts have traditionally dominated the Northeast’s startup narrative, MTI-HUB is pushing for diversification into new economy sectors. Kangabam listed focus areas including, Fintech for community lending and cooperative digitization; Mobility (e-bikes, battery technology); SaaS solutions for education and supply chain; AI/ML applications in indigenous language learning and sentiment analysis; Deeptech innovations in waste-to-energy and biotechnology.
“We are working with academic institutions and central agencies to identify emerging sectors that have local relevance and national scalability,” Kangabam said during the interview with BNE.
Startups in Manipur face critical regulatory hurdles including cumbersome land and factory registrations with complex, delayed approvals; lack of NABL-accredited labs for product testing and R&D, forcing startups to send samples outside the state; limited IP and legal support for patents, trademarks, and regulatory filings.
MTI-HUB’s addresses these issues by hosting policy workshops, advocacy for local NABL-accredited labs, and partnerships with legal/compliance firms to offer subsidised services, Kangabam mentioned.
Kangabam views Manipur’s startup ecosystem as a testbed for bio-based economies, circular models, and indigenous knowledge systems—areas critical to India’s inclusive innovation agenda. “We want Manipur to be seen as a strategic testbed for sustainable innovations in agriculture, green technologies, and traditional knowledge,” he said.
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Given Manipur's strategic location along the Indo-Myanmar border, MTI-HUB is also exploring cross-border entrepreneurship opportunities with neighboring countries like Myanmar, Bangladesh, and Thailand through startup exchanges, trade fairs, and virtual innovation corridors. However, ongoing political instability in Myanmar has created significant challenges, hindering the scaling and consistent operation of these ventures, Kangabam admitted.
Looking ahead, MTI-HUB in next five years, aims to position Manipur as "The Gateway to Southeast Asia and the Next Hot-Spot for Startups," with plans to establish Centres of Excellence in bio-innovation and climate tech, create over 1,000 high-quality jobs, and institutionalize a Northeast-ASEAN Startup Corridor to leverage Manipur’s geostrategic location bordering Myanmar, Bangladesh, and Thailand.
To strengthen the talent pipeline further, MTI-HUB is collaborating with Manipur University, DM University, Manipur Technical University, Central Agricultural University (CAU), IIIT Manipur, and NIT Manipur. Joint programs like ‘INNOVENTURE’ and Business Idea Competitions are fostering research-backed startups, while efforts to institutionalise joint IP filing and co-innovation labs are underway.
Manipur’s startup journey remains at a formative stage currently.
"The road to building a robust innovation economy is long and fraught with systemic challenges", Kangabam added further.
FIRST Business Portal addressing the potential of business capability of North East Region.
