How India's NE can be a zone of sustainable industrial development

Atul K Thakur
Contd from previous issue
While the North Eastern region has been part of the structural reforms processes that India started way back in 1991 with a greater economic liberalisation drive and ceaselessly pursued since then, it is also time to project the region as a major investment destination with immense business opportunities. Surrounded by international borders including Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Myanmar — the region is uniquely placed to strengthen India’s peaceful growth mission of regional and subregional economic cooperation in the neighbourhood.
An ever-increasing focus on MSMEs is surely helping the startup culture to grow in the region, with the bright soft skills and geographic advantages, the youth of the North Eastern region is leading from the front in re-scripting the business fundamentals in India.
Essentially, better inclusion of thoughts and processes related to planning for the North East will usher in a new phase of development. The entrepreneurial spirit in the region is quite positive and with greater traction of support at policy fronts and from the lenders are certainly giving a new growth impetus to MSMEs to grow and support the youth in finding gainful employment. Among the key success stories, it is important to recollect the journey of Sikkim as the place for authentic organic farming with impressive logistic support and market linkages—and thus enabling the farmers’ to avail the actual dividend of economic reforms. The growth of MSMEs will be one among many desirable outcomes, which is going to shape the future of the very promising North Eastern region of India.
As the world’s largest democracy and one of the most significant economies of the world, India is a zone of hope. Its North East region must be viewed from the same prism and should be supported and projected as the major growth corridor with close proximity to nature. In fact, the North East region has all the reasons to be a zone of sustainable industrial development. A view of that sort is already driving a silent transformation in the North East, something that should be noticed and acknowledged too. The writer is a policy professional, columnist and author with a special focus on South Asia. The views expressed here are personal.
Courtesy FirstPost