To, the editor
The North-Eastern Chronicle,
Guwahati.
Dear Sir/Madam,
There is a lot to talk about the beautiful region of northeast. The beauty, the humbleness of the people and the history this region has created through ages. The recent victory of Mirabai in Olympics, the impossible achieved by Jadhav Payeng and the pride that MC Mary Kom has brought to the nation have only added to the glory of this region.
However, I being from an economic background would like to bring into light the economic potential of this region. Recently, it has been seen that a greater number of the young educated population seek to move to the other parts of the country to seek better opportunity in terms of jobs, business, even education.
The very perspective that opportunities are lacking in this region is very much evident from the mentioned above. However, the question that we need to ask ourselves is that do we have the potential to perform better than this.
The advantages that this region holds geographically is that this region has an abundant availability of rainfall, and an extremely mineral rich soil and an abundant source of water; the Brahmaputra.
Hence, the region can actually become a primary supplier of agricultural products, crops which grow on these fertile lands like rice but for these, government has to invest a big amount out its pocket to build a better network of roads and especially railways which can carry a heavier good or goods in larger amount.
Sadly there are many states in North-eastern region that have not yet been connected by railway lines hence, logistics is still a very big problem in this region. Besides the infrastructure, the most important point that every state government of this region needs to look into is that of Ease To Do Business.
Most of the portions of North East cannot ensure that a business will be able to perform its operations without being disturbed by various ‘non market’ factors.
Protection and encouragement of the business is very important in a region, the investment made will generate employment, generate income and will expand the treasury of both the central and the state government but for all these to happen, it is very important that the local government ensure the ease to do business to these investors or entrepreneurs, that includes protection to them from any external factors, establishment of a proper market place and invest on projects to improve communication such as internet in this era of e-marketing which at present is actually quite erratic in this region.
Currently, many north-eastern states are earning several hundred crores from the tourism industry and mineral reserves in some states which has presented this region with business opportunities and the local government more or less has been supporting these industries, social media has helped the beauty of the northeast to be presented before the rest of the country.
Upcoming resorts, new trekking trails, mountain biking all these have undoubtedly helped in presenting northeast India as more than just a land of greens and tribal culture.
However, this industry alone is not enough. Hence, its very important that we focus on other sources of employment and income.
I would conclude by saying that we the people from northeast can work very hard, we are very creative and can show results without fail given the opportunity.
We have shown what we are capable of in both national and international arena. The region still holds untapped potential and if utilised correctly can reach unimaginable heights in terms of progress. In this letter I have tried to throw light only some of those.
Yours Sincerely,
Saurin Dey,
Guru Gobind Singh Indraprasth University,
Delhi
