Trumpeting Make in Manipur
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: February 29 2016 -

It seems Chief Minister Okram Ibobi is committed to make the Make in Manipur initiative a success.

Make in Manipur initiative was conceptualised in the line of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Make in India mission, with both the initiatives or missions, whichever one prefers to call, aimed at bringing rapid economic development.

The Chief Minister underscored the key roles of innovators and their innovative ideas for accomplishment of the mission called Make in Manipur when he categorically stated that the initiative will be successful with participation of more innovators.

The Chief Minister also declared that the Department of Science and Technology will encourage local innovators by providing space to display their innovative products to public from March at the Manipur Science Centre.

No doubt, innovative ideas are crucial for such a grand initiative. But ideas are not enough.

It demands a slew of elements, the most fundamental being political will. So far, the State Government, particularly the Chief Minister seems quite committed to accomplish the mission.

There must also be modern physical infrastructure, adequate investment and capacity building.

Conducive atmosphere for investment and growth of entrepreneurship are other prerequisites.

But many of these prerequisites are conspicuously either absent or inadequate in the State as of now. By saying this we don’t intend to undermine the Chief Minister’s pet initiative.

In fact, we are hoping for a socio-economic revolution out of the Make in Manipur mission.

Indeed, industrial infrastructure is important but what strikes our mind first when one talks about physical infrastructure is connectivity.

Manipur and the entire North East region are known for poor connectivity all along.

One may call it sheer coincidence but it sounds rather interesting that Union Minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari was talking about development of road and rail connectivity as well as robust power and communication networks in the North East region to attract industries, investment and creation of jobs on the same day as Chief Minister O Ibobi was championing the Make in Manipur initiative.

If the two statements are juxtaposed, one cannot miss the fact that there is a close link between what the Union Minister was talking about and what the Chief Minister was advocating.

People of Manipur would agree that the State would find itself handicapped to accomplish the mission of Make in Manipur all alone without assistance of the Central Government.

At the same time, the Government of India must acknowledge that its ambitious Act East Policy cannot be fully materialised without active participation of the Northeastern States including Manipur.

So, there is a need to couple the Make in Manipur initiative with the Act East Policy.

Here, we cannot help asking if there is some sort of mechanism for effective coordination and coherence between the Central Government and State Governments.

But as far as we can discern, there is little coherence between several economic policies of the Central Government and economic plans formulated by different States.

Yes, the respective State Governments are best placed to formulate appropriate policies for economic development of their States.

There cannot be common economic policies for all the States given the diverse and varying socio-economic and political conditions.

Moreover, economic opportunities, infrastructure and raw materials vary from one State to another. The Central Government has its responsibility of planning for the whole country but it cannot leave the States to stew in their own juices.

Even if the economic plans of States cannot fit in directly with the national economic policy, there should be enough room where they can complement and/or supplement each other.

It would be a disaster if the economic plans of a State contradict the national economic policy.