Mushrooming of medium and large scale enterprises in Manipur

Mubasir Raji *

5th Manipur Pineapple Festival 2012 at Sendra Craft and Mela Ground, Bishnupur District in August 2012 :: Pix - Bunti Phurailatpam

We are at the cross road; the unresolved political and historical issues hinges and plague the state. It hampers development and suppresses the morale of the people. So much amount of energy has been wasted in anguish and fear psychosis.

We see a lot of protests and demonstrations every now and then; so many amounts of funds and resources have been wasted simply to suppress the unrest. One wonders, if all these resources has been put to work in developmental related schemes; the result could have been far opposite.

The state set up huge security machinery, the whole process takes big amounts of funds and resources in terms of recruitment, training and maintenance. Above it if we make into account the frequent general strikes and blockade that the state encounter every now and then; the loss is irreparable one. The whole atmosphere is sucking the blood of both the state and the common people. But everything is not lost; we see light at the end of the tunnel. We see a horde of small and medium scale private sector enterprises mushrooming in recent times.

Manipur in the last ten years witnessed a phenomenal rise in the numbers of medium and large scale private sector enterprisers. All these self made enterprises’ have been made possible because of their aggressive founders. They are self-made because they are neither funded by the state nor the environment is very favorable.

In spite of all odds, these self-made entrepreneurs have been successful in crossing the hurdles and come so far. With some timely funding and cooperation from the concern stake holders (public) these enterprises can gain wings and they can fly to many different directions. If such a thing happen; it will be really good for the state and the entire region. For one thing it will do a world of good to the economy of the state.

The question is still the same old one which the every emerging nation has to answer at some point of time. The question is or rather it is a decision to be made- what the state wanted, home grown enterprise or investment from outside- to boost the economy of the state.

At the present juncture, investment from outside or so called FDI (foreign direct investment) is not seeing to that extent here, the atmosphere is simply unfavorable. At the moment, we have to be at the mercy of central government for the regular flow of funds. All these big questions about the FDI and all have rather to be decided by the centre.

Even if the central government give the go ahead and place the decision taking capacity to the state, still we have to go to central government, time and again for other strategic and policies matter. At the moment it will be too farfetched even to discuss these issues because we neither have the environment nor our doors are open for such purposes.

If we leave the policy matters for the time being and discuss about the potential of the state, it has shown tremendous promise of growth in recent years. Pineapple cultivation has shown a potential of promising returns. Pineapple cultivation can do a wonder just like tea cultivation has done for our neighboring state Assam.

Talking about tea cultivation, do we have the potential to grow tea in our state? No doubt we have all the potentials as far as soils and climatic conditions are concern. But we don’t have funds and such big investment to cater to need of tea plantation type.

Unlike pineapple cultivation tea cultivation need large amount of investment facilities. Pineapple can be grown by anyone; in fact it can be grown at our own backyard and kitchen garden.

The experiment with tea plantation has been conducted on our soil on many occasions. Yes we had already grown tea on our soil; the experience has been a good one. But what is really interesting is our experience with herbal tea in recent times.

In recent days there has been great craze in Manipur about a phenomenon called herbal tea. This innovative idea has been started on an experimental basis but its result is phenomenal. The herbal tea has been a great hit with the masses. It has been a talk of the town among the entrepreneurs of Manipur. The experiment with herbal tea has been one success story which will be told and retold many times in future.

The herbal which is also locally known as Lemon tea because it tastes somewhat like lemon is a great hit. The herbal tea has all the health benefit which one can expect from an herbal product.

No doubt herbal tea has been shown good response from every quarter; it can be a good product which can be marketed the world over.

It can be cultivated in a large scale manner. It has shown the potential to be a flag bearer, the future of herbal tea definitely look bright. If it cultivated in large scale manner or funds are pump into already existing ventures, it will generate employment and contribute in many positive ways to the state economy. Importantly it can serve as a role for other emerging enterprises.