Not unicorns, lifelines: 5 Northeast startups building for problems they grew up with

From villages without reliable electricity to AI that understands Northeast Indian languages, a new generation of founders is building technology around problems they have seen up close. The founders who gathered in Sikkim last weekend for AIC-SMUTBI's Entrepreneurship and Innovation Convergence were not just talking about markets and valuations. Across two days at Sikkim Manipal Institute of Technology in Majitar, startups, investors, policymakers and academics from all eight Northeastern state