Manipur, now an innovation powerhouse

By Ranjan Yumnam *

Yes, it's official. We are one of the most innovative people in the country according to a leading business magazine, the Business World. Manipur is ranked 4^th in terms of innovation after Sikkim, Mizoram and Goa. This is startling because these are the small states which hardly feature in the book of India's shining stories.

Now, the bad news: in terms of overall competitiveness, Manipur plummets to the bottom of the heap among the Indian states - at 23rd rank, ahead only of Tripura, Mizoram, Nagaland and Jammu and Kashmir.

While arriving at these results, Business World, in partnership with the Institute of Competitiveness at Gurgaon, Haryana, employed the Diamond model of competiveness assessment forwarded by Michael Porter of World Economic Forum which recently published a competitiveness index of countries. Not going into too much economic mumbo jumbo, Diamond model takes into account:
1. Demand conditions (sophistication of local customers and needs),
2. Availability of related and supporting industries,
3. Factor conditions (natural resources, human and physical, administrative efficiency etc) and
4. Context (local governance and rules/incentives that encourage investment and productivity).

The study has thrown up one more bombshell that will make us proud: Manipur is no.1 in one more competitiveness benchmark, Institutional Support, which means one can set up a business at supersonic speed in Manipur with 100 per cent support from the institutions-government and non-government. (Do ground realities vindicate this? Doubtful. Anyway thanks for the honour.) Predictably, our administrative efficiency is at a dismal 19th position. These are conflicting findings and to make sense of these, we can only make guesses since we do not have access to the data on which this competitiveness index is based.

First, some hard questions. Are we more innovative than the Tamils, Marathis, Gujaratis and other biggies? Definitely YES. My point is: Is there anything in Manipur which is not possible? We come up with ideas which would put Leonardo da Vinci to shame. We invent, among other things, forms of protest from dharnas, wakat meephams to bhandhs. JAC is unique to Manipuris (time to patent it? Don't let it go the neem way). Then there are curfews to counter them even as another JAC sprouts up to demand another set of pledges from the government. We live in an era of the Clash of JACs-our Titans. Despite these depressing circumstances, we manage to live. Not only do we live, we thrive with bursts of pride and ego amidst blood and gore. We have survived the insurmountable odds. We are the innovative dogs sans the millionaire and Oscar. Jai Ho.

CHANGE YAOSHANG INTO SPORTS WEEK
I don't know whether it is because aging process has caught on with me or because the law and order situation has worsened, there is less of a buzz about Thabal Chongbas, gulaals revelry and holi related scuffles this festival week. This trend is heart-warming. As the young generation has become more interested in career matters over mindless festivities and parents have also become more exposed thanks to their own education outside the state, Holi now fails to appeal to the younger lot. At this opportune juncture, the government can boost the morale of the dazzling sportsmen of Manipur by rechristening the Holi week as the Manipur Sports Week. Government or apex body of the local clubs can also organize a mega sports meet at the state level with participants shortlisted by the clubs. This will go a long way in promoting sports to a new high. While other Indians literally muddy themselves and indulge in hazardous and dirty ways of celebrating Holi, let's prepare for Olympics. Think global and act local. That's it.

EYE OF AN "I"
The short films movement has not taken off in Manipur though digital Manipuri potboilers are dime a dozen. While full-length feature films can cater to both the entertainment starved masses and the thinking classes, short films are mostly made by the connoisseurs of the medium out of labour of love and for the discerning audience; and they are destined more likely to festivals-BAFTA comes to mind.

Nungee Mit loosely translated as Eye of an "I" by its director, Chaoba Thiyam, is a short film for the thinking class. (Disclosure: Chaoba Thiyam, a friend, is known to me for years). Though a short film, Nungee Mit is a visual poetry packed with clever depictions of grimy realities of Manipur and the state of our miserable lives resigned to our fates. Through psychedelic juxtapositions and deft editing, images of our collective helplessness-bandhs, dharnas, shrill wailings of women and children, mutilated bodies etc-punctuate the non-lateral narrative of the film. The camera follows the protagonist who rides in a motorcycle through the filthy streets of the Imphal city, which has become the contested ground of hoi polloi, numerous JACs, law enforcers, cattle-and garbage. The Khwairamband market stinks, the Nambul river reeks of scum and the people's mentality inspires little hope. Our hideous surroundings, our hapless circumstances have become one with us and we have hit the hellish death end.

As the sun sets and the camera zooms to the homestead of our protagonist, we are again exposed to the same depressing fare. The late night TV news is a summary of the indignities and injustices occurring in the city daily. There is no escape in the sleep. You wake up in the middle of the night with sweat all over with flashes of nightmarish images of our existential being still fresh in the mind. You feel naked with frustration even as you see apparitions of a white clad woman (presumably mother Manipur) suffering in convulsive fits.

Chaoba Thiyam told me his 15-minute miniature film was a poetry. I asked him to write it down and here it is:

Living in the worst of times, hoping for the best,
All we dream is only nightmares.
Hopelessness, angst, agony,
Is the only reality that glares in the Eye of an "I".