RONO HILLS, Mar 12: A two-day national seminar on ‘Dynamics of economic development in Northeastern region of India: present status, emerging issues and future prospects’, organized by the Centre for Development Studies, Department of Economics (Rajiv Gandhi University), began at the RGU premises here today.
Speaking at the event, Prof Atul Sarma, former RGU Vice Chancellor and member of the 13th Finance Commission, stated that the Northeastern region of India has huge potential for development, but these are not translated into reality as desired by the people. He mentioned that the Shukla Commission had earlier identified five deficits of development in the region namely: infrastructure deficit, deficit of fund, deficit of technology, deficit in governance, deficit in linkage with the rest of the country. The region is a protected one and security is the prime for infrastructure development, he added.
He stated that because of its strategic location, the region was not considered suitable for setting up of key industries. The region is suffering from an infrastructure deficit as the cost of infrastructure development is 4 to 5 times higher in the hilly areas of the region as compared to the rest of the country. Further, with digitization of the economy, there are other emerging issues like skill deficiency and skill mismatch in the region leading to growing youth unemployment.
He mentioned that potential in the region has two problems: it requires huge investment and a narrow resource base. Resources are depleting nature, so we need to reinvest the revenue received in creating assets for future generation, but doing so is a challenging task, he added. The states of the region are tiny, except Assam and so the market size is small. To overcome it, he suggested a unified Northeastern economy and to ensure free flow of goods and labour. He argued that in the case of tourism development, there is a need to develop a circuit covering different states of the region to have a unified market. He opined that unified market, connectivity improvement and digitization supported by appropriate policy can help the region’s economy to grow faster.
Prof Amitava Mitra, former Pro Vice-Chancellor RGU, delivered the keynote address on sustainable development. He pointed out that sustainable development is essential for the region to maintain a balance between economic development and ecological balance.
Prof Mitra showed that in 17 goals of sustainable development, most states of the region are performing below the national average. He mentioned that Sikkim is the top performer in sustainable development goals because of organic farming and ecotourism, and asked other states to follow the forerunner. He highlighted the potentials of the region for achieving sustainable development such as ecotourism, agriculture and horticulture, floriculture and hydropower.
He called for strengthening infrastructure, promoting ecotourism and organic farming for achieving the goals of sustainable development. He stated the region can be a global hub of organic mart in the future. The region needs to move on a new pathway to translate potentials into reality. For this, he suggested market linkages, productivity enhancement, institutional support and inclusive approach.
Prof S K Nayak, Vice Chancellor RGU, urged the scholars to put the research ideas in a simple way so that they can be understood by the people at large. He suggested the scholars focus on the parameters of sustainable development and carry out in-depth research to understand the issues related to sustainable development.
Prof Nani Bath, Dean Faculty of Social Sciences (RGU), stated the growing inequality in the region is mainly due to lack of division of labour and low productivity and low return is due to lack of knowledge about large scale farming. He criticized the “imitative enterprising” in the region and called for innovative practices for development.
While mentioning about the land acquisition issues related to development projects, he stated that tribal people are sensitive to their land and culture, and so the State shall have to take proper concerns of the local people.
Prof Otem Padung, Finance Officer RGU, called for balanced development of all the sectors of economy and balanced regional development as unbalanced development is not tenable and attractive.