Act East Policy & Make in Manipur
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: February 22 2016 -

Restructuring Commerce and Industries Department and approval of the draft Manipur Micro and Small Enterprises Facilitation Rules 2015 were two significant resolutions adopted by the State Cabinet on February 20, 2016.

The Cabinet meeting also deliberated on the prospect of creating job opportunities for unemployed youth through Make in Manipur initiative as per media reports.

These resolutions and deliberations assume greater significance as they were adopted by keeping the Government of India’s Act East Policy and Make in India initiative in the backdrop.

Whereas Act East Policy is a slight alteration of the Look East Policy, the Make in India initiative is a new policy of the BJP Government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

According to many policy-planners and analysts, Make in India is a new national programme designed to transform India into a global manufacturing hub.

It contains a slew of proposals designed to urge companies, both local and foreign, to invest in India and make the country a manufacturing powerhouse.

The focus of Make In India initiative is creation jobs and skill enhancement in 25 sectors which include automobiles, aviation, chemicals, IT, BPM, pharmaceuticals, construction, defence, manufacturing, electrical machinery, food processing, textiles and garments, ports, leather, media and entertainment, mining, tourism and hospitality, railways, automobile components, renewable energy, mining, bio-technology, space, thermal power, roads and highways and electronics systems.

Not long after the Make in India programme was launched, the Government of Manipur came up with the idea of Make in Manipur which is more or less in line with the Government of India’s initiative.

To carry out such an ambitious project certainly needs huge investment and a lot of infrastructure.

It would be an epoch-making achievement of the incumbent Government if they can couple India’s Act East Policy with the Make in Manipur initiative and transform the same initiative into a sustainable and vibrant economic policy.

On account of its geo-strategic location, Manipur and for that matter the entire North East region occupies a key position in the overall scheme of the whole policy.

In fact, it is this strategic location vis-a-vis Act East Policy which has started drawing investment to the State.

If investment is one side of the coin called Make in Manipur initiative, then skill enhancement and capacity building are definitely the other side of the coin.

For multi-national corporations and international financial institutions, investment is basically all about economic exploitation in the region of investment.

The region or the State where the investments are made can capitalize on the investment only if they have the capacity and skill to do so.

Herein lies the importance of capacity building and skill enhancement. Even if one assumes that the State Government has taken a significant decision to restructure Commerce and Industries Department, the State of Manipur has still a very long way to go before it is fully equipped to tackle the juggernaut of globalization.

Result oriented policies and rules for micro and small industries and active promotion of entrepreneurship are the need of the hour.

Red-tapism and official sluggishness should not be allowed to pose obstacles to such an ambitious project like the Make in Manipur.

There is a need to upgrade entrepreneurship skill to the highest international standard and people of the land should be given training on the technical know-how of competitive business.

The unsaid part was/is that globalization is a new force in which liberalization and privatization of economy are the central unchangeable configuration, and the Act East Policy is one manifestation of this configuration.

Globalization and for that matter Act East Policy is driven by information technology.

Just because Manipur is not ready, the onslaught of globalization would not halt or stop.

We must be prepared to ride the wave of globalization so as to ensure not only survival but also prosperity. The dictum is “Either you adapt or perish”.