Of initiatives, campaign & entrepreneurship
- Hueiyen Lanpao Editorial :: November 28 2015 -

Manipur Chief Minister Okram Ibobi on November 26 launched the “Make in Manipur for Employment Generation” campaign and expressed the hope that the initiative will be given teeth by encouraging entrepreneurship with an aim to generate employment for the educated youth.

During the launch function, Ibobi stated that efforts should be made to generate employment through the private sector since it is impossible to provide Government jobs to everyone in the State.

While making such statements, Ibobi is well aware that the idea of employment as understood by the people of Manipur has been directly related to the jobs provided by the Government for the fortunate few.

However, the Chief Minister had also exuded confidence in the economic development of the State by expecting entrepreneurs in the State can provide jobs to a number of unemployed youth.

While Ibobi’s confidence can not be underrated, one is not sure if the State Government has done enough to encourage entrepreneurship that suits Manipur.

Ibobi has also rightly recalled that many initiatives taken up earlier by the State Government had failed due to a number of reasons both real and imagined.

Not deterred by such failures, the Chief Minister even assured regular power supply if there were successful initiatives to establish industries in Manipur.

This is like putting the cart before the horses.

One is not sure if Ibobi was actually implying that there will be no initiative taken to improve the State’s power generation and supply capability if there was no industrial development at all.

While Ibobi’s conception of development in Manipur vis-à-vis generation of employment opportunities can still be debated, an emerging scenario in the State has been the one-track idea that entrepreneurship meant pumping in lots of fund into a business proposal.

Many do not realize that entrepreneurship also entails the process of designing a new business leading to a startup company offering a product, process or service.

Though the State has seen some successful entrepreneurs particularly in the medical and hospitality sector, Manipur is yet to witness an upsurge in establishing credible industrial houses.

Though there are numerous bottlenecks, experts feel the State possesses immense potentials.

Yet, these potentials and the way forward have not properly been assessed and the authorities have tried little in organizing international business conclaves with a frequency so as to spur enthusiastic participants of the educated youth.