SGM Consultancy Service: Building Industrial Clarity for Businesses in the Northeast

Few regions have experienced a shift as striking as Northeast India’s industrial transformation over the past decade. Long considered a frontier for development, the region has rapidly become a magnet for manufacturing, tourism, and healthcare investments, particularly in Assam, fueled by a growing stream of government incentives and policy initiatives. However, as this investment wave accelerates, the demand for reliable, end-to-end consultancy support has outpaced supply. Professional guidance on government subsidies, environmental compliance, HR regulations, and sector-specific audits remains critically underdeveloped, creating costly knowledge gaps for new and expanding enterprises. To address this unmet need, SGM Consultancy Service has emerged as a strategic enabler of Northeast India’s industrial ascent.

SGM Consultancy Service is a firm built to interpret policy and make industrial compliance and benefit realization in the Northeast a functionally viable proposition. Since its inception in 2017, with its headquarters in Guwahati, Assam, the firm has grown out of one persistent vision, which is to offer investors and enterprises a single-window consultancy platform that helps translate government subsidies, audits, environmental clearances, and statutory obligations into actual business advantages. Unlike traditional firms that concentrate on one vertical, be it financial incentives, HR compliance, or environmental permits, it creates a scaffold that supports the entire lifecycle of business setup and sustenance in the Northeast.

One-Roof Guidance

New industrial units entering the Northeast do not require just capital or land, they need clarity on multiple fronts, including Uttar Poorva Transformative Industrialization Scheme (UNNATI 2024), various other state policies, HR regulations, pollution and environmental approvals, to name a few. SGM Consultancy Service aligns each client’s industrial plan with the relevant compliance trajectory and incentive milestones.

It offers a variety of services, ranging from groundwater permission and Lean management system certifications to ESG integration and project management, but the orchestration of these services is one fluid consultancy experience. The firm functions as an intermediary between evolving government frameworks and client operations, decoding what each policy update, deadline, or audit protocol means for business.

Recognizing the void in credible consultancy across areas like fire audits, ESG planning, energy efficiency, or environmental clearances, SGM Consultancy Service creates a vetted consortium of specialists. These include QCI and NPC empaneled partners, energy auditors, legal professionals, and compliance advisors. Through these partnerships, the firm enables its clients to meet statutory deadlines, secure timely approvals, and avoid punitive consequences, outcomes that are especially critical in a regulatory landscape where a single missed renewal or submission can translate into months of project delay or funding loss.

SGM Consultancy Service's traction over the past four years offers a clear measure of trust it has cultivated among clients and institutional stakeholders

Vikash Kumar Agarwal, Proprietor

Structured Professionalism

Rather than only providing recommendations, SGM Consultancy Service monitors execution right from application filing to department liaisons, ensuring clients receive tangible outcomes. The firm’s team composition strengthens this approach. A mix of legal experts, MBAs, engineers, and advisors, including retired senior government officers, brings a crossfunctional rigor to every engagement. The team currently comprises 11 members, nine of whom are women. The firm commits to the professionalization of consultancy in the region and actively contributes to local economic participation, particularly by fostering women-led expertise in technical and regulatory roles.

Market Expansion as a Measure of Trust

SGM Consultancy Service's traction over the past four years offers a clear measure of trust it has cultivated among clients and institutional stakeholders. Between 2017 and 2020, it operated as a solo advisory with limited recognition. By 2021, post-COVID restructuring and a refocus on core service delivery transformed the firm’s growth trajectory. It continues to deepen its regional imprint with operations now spanning five Northeastern states, Assam, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Nagaland, and Arunachal Pradesh, and active expansion into Tripura and Manipur.

“Under the North East Industrial Development Scheme launched between 2017 and 2022, we successfully facilitated a significant number of total incentive claims”, says Vikash Kumar Agarwal, Proprietor, SGM Consultancy Service. The firm plays a role of strategic advisor rather than a transactional consultant by delivering government benefits, despite structural delays or policy adjustments.

Clients rely on the firm for initial project clearances and long-term maintenance, including ongoing compliance, renewals, ESG audits, and policy tracking. To this end, SGM Consultancy Service maintains a digital ecosystem of alerts, updates, and government circulars to keep clients informed and legally prepared. This forward monitoring becomes a source of competitive advantage for clients operating in sensitive or seasonal sectors like tourism, food processing, or healthcare manufacturing.

Forward Momentum through Institutionalization

The firm views regional public-private initiatives like Advantage Assam 2.0 and Rising North East as actionable growth pathways. By positioning itself as a back-end enabler for these initiatives, it ties its business trajectory directly to the long-term industrialization of the Northeast. SGM Consultancy Service recently won the Best Employer Award from the Calcutta Management Association and is a two-time nominee for the MSME National Awards.

As the firm looks toward the next phase of its growth, it aims to build capacity in areas where Northeast India still lacks in-house capabilities. These include hydrological surveys, environmental impact assessments, and dedicated fire safety and manpower consultancy. Rather than continue to rely on consortium partners from outside the region, it is investing in localized institutional expertise by training new teams, onboarding sector veterans, and expanding its compliance and project management verticals. In this space, one delayed submission can cost a manufacturer lakhs in missed subsidies. Its model thrives on that very premise, of recurring vigilance, seamless execution, and continuous advice.