I think the definition of industry in Manipur needs to be re-defined.
We can probably think of some other industry, knowledge industry per se other than a hard core manufacturing unit. The concept of manufacturing industry has always been failure in Manipur.
It may be because of a wrong business model but instead of debating on it we can probably focus on a business which has high probability of getting good ROI taking into account the workable resources we have.
Some of the bottlenecks will/could be
- Improvement in the power sector
- Create a share need to have a working friendly environment to attract the investors.
We should be able to market ourselves and assure that the model will work.
The concept of knowledge base industry will have very less impact of such meaningless blockades etc. Over a period of time we may also see change in the priorities of the people and making noise at the right time in right manner.
It will also help to attract the talents from the neighboring states. This in the long run will refrained our folks from economic blockades for each and every issue.
Improvement in the power sector shouldn't be major hurdle as most of states in India faces similar crunch but they are running this industry successfully.
Typically in a knowledge base industry, all we need is human resources. We probably need to do SWOT (Strength Weakness Opportunities and Threat) analysis as start up.
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Strength - One major advantage of getting jobs offshore is due to cost cutting.
Off late if you see Kolkata at one point of time wasn't in IT Map
which was dominated by Bangalore,Hyderabad,Gurgaon, Pune to name a few.
Now due to low operating cost Kolkata, Vizag etc are coming up.
Imphal being a comparatively low cost place we have that advantage keeping aside talent.
We also have good number of resources if not plenty.
Manipuris associated with the industry outside Manipur will be a valuable contributer.
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Weakness - Infrastructure in terms of the real estate, power, hospitability, mindset of the general public, security needs to be slightly improved.
One should be able to go home quietly at the end of day.
It may be 10 PM or at midnight for that matter.
We need to change the current format of agitation and bandhs.
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Opportunities - This will also create lots of business, employment opportunities apart from knowledge workers in the industry.
For example, we'll need transporters to run the cabs, real estate will show an upward trend, and tourism will get a boost.
This will also force people to think big and align them with the globalization era.
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Threats - Current governance, tax structure, law and order scenario will force most of the investors to think twice.
It won't be easy for a captive unit to come and start up the working so easily.
May be government can take a lead. To kick off, government in order to attract investors should declare tax holidays for a couple of years.
This in th long run will help the government to generate good amount of revenue so that centre doesn't hesitate in allocating the budgets.
Sovereignty factor will play a significant role to attract investments from a captive unit.
K. Rahul Dev Sharma, a Senior Business Intelligence Consultant, writes regularly to e-pao.net
You can contact the writer at [email protected]
This article was webcasted on August 01, 2005.
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