President’s Address at the Inauguration of the Conference on Development of East & North East India - Strategic issues in a National Perspective, Kolkata, west Bengal
Convergence
of Core Competencies for Regional Prosperity
"Great
missions born out of great minds"
I am delighted to participate in the inauguration of the Conference
on development of East and North-East India. I am happy that the Conference is
bringing together intellectuals, industrialists, political leaders and societal
transformers concerned with the development of East and North East India comprising
of Bihar, Orissa, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur,
Meghalaya, Nagaland, Assam, Mizoram and Tripura particularly to bring the benefits
of national economic growth to the rural people in different parts of this region.
This region accounts for over 260 million people.
I have visited all
the States of East and North-East a number of times. Every time I visit, I see
the natural environment with multiple bio-diversity, beautiful rivers, forests,
mountains, valleys, plains, and above all hardworking people. With these resources
I am confident that this region with its multiple core competence and Investment
Plan can get transformed into a developed region well before 2020.
Vision for East and North-East India 2017
Let me start with my visualization of East and North-East States
in the year 2017:
a) The people living below poverty line will become
near zero in all the States from the existing 45% in some States.
b) The current per
capita income of the East and North East region which is in the range Rs.6500
to Rs.18,000, will increase to Rs.50,000.
c) Infant mortality
rate will become less than 10 per thousand from the present 60 per thousand prevalent
in some of the States.
d) All the East and
North East States will be free from water borne diseases and receive affordable,
quality heath care.
e) The East and North East States will realize the goal of
100% literacy from the existing less than 50% in some of the States.
f) All citizens of East and North East States will be empowered
with quality education, healthcare and employment potential leading to overall
enhancement in prosperity and happiness.
Let me now discuss the core competencies of the East and North
East States and how individually and together they can bring prosperity to the
region.
Core Competence of East and North East States
East and North East States have several core competencies and
every State has a vision to become a developed State in a time bound manner. Let
us now focus on some of them which can be collectively pooled for mutual benefit.
Bihar is endowed with Ganges and many rivers, a fertile soil and is famous for
sugar and dairy industries. Orissa has a large coast line and it is famous for
its launch sites, mineral resources and steel plant. Jharkhand is endowed with
coal, minerals, steel, fertilizer and industries. West Bengal is famous for arts,
music, science and education. Assam is endowed with petroleum, natural gas, coal,
limestone and many other mineral like magnetic quartzite. Tripura is endowed with
rubber farms, bamboo forests, horticultural products such as ginger and is rich
in oil and gas. Sikkim is famous for its special variety of cardamom, ginger,
anthurium and is endowed with large hydel potential. Meghalaya has varied and
suitable climate for important commercial varieties of orchid including those
of Cattleya, Scented Rose, Anthurium, Lilies ., which can be grown for cut flower
production. Nagaland is the land of the young. It is a beautiful state with unique
tradition of tribal structure, community organization and strong bonds that connect
people to people. Every house in Nagaland is endowed with handicraft skills. Mizoram
has the potential for cultivation of Cash crops like Tapioca, ginger, fruits like
orange, lemon, kagziline, pineapple and papaya. These crops can enable setting
up of fruit and vegetable processing plants for value addition and distant marketing.
When I think of Manipur I am reminded of the leaves of passion fruit which contains
alkaloids and other phyto-chemicals, which are useful in treatment of hypertension
and respiratory diseases. Its beautiful flower has several medicinal properties.
The folk dances of Manipur are world famous. Arunachal Pradesh is famous for horticulture
and fruit orchards. It is a great place for spiritual tourism. We can generate
over 25,000 mega watts of electric power from the Hydel resources of Arunachal
Pradesh. All the States are endowed with rich cultural heritage and can become
the most sought after tourist destinations.
Social and Economic Development - Transforming
East and North East India into a fully developed region
Since over two hundred million citizens of East and North East
live in villages, there is an urgency to improve the conditions of rural life
through better physical connectivity, electronic connectivity, knowledge connectivity,
which together will lead to comprehensive economic connectivity. For this mission,
we have to ensure that the overall GDP growth rate of East and North East States
has to reach 8% to 10%, and maintained at this level for the next ten years. For
this, employment generation, particularly in the rural areas is very essential.
This necessitates spreading the development process to the rural sector.
We have nucleated programme called PURA (Providing Urban Amenities
in Rural Areas) involving a geographically co-located clusters of multiple villages
with four connectivities namely physical, electronic and knowledge leading to
economic connectivity. India with its six hundred thousand villages needs to have
7,000 PURAs. The specific needs of the PURA for different states in East and North
East will be around 2000 PURAs. Each PURA cluster, apart from concentrating on
reinforcing agriculture, will emphasize on areas like agro processing, development
of rural craftsmanship, dairy, silk production and fishing, so that the non-farm
revenue for the rural sector is enhanced, based on the competitive advantage of
the region.
It is also essential that the rural economy should be driven
by renewable energies such as solar, wind, bio-fuel and conversion of municipal
waste into power. With this approach, the core competencies in the rural sector
would be harnessed for sustainable development of the economy as a whole.
PURA envisages an integrated development plan with employment
generation as the focus, driven by provision of the habitat, healthcare, education,
skill development, physical and electronic connectivity and marketing in an integrated
way for a cluster of villages with critical mass. In our country, we have five
operational PURAs such as Periyar PURA, Byrraju PURA, Loni PURA, Chitrakoot PURA
and Sakthi PURA. With a strategy for the bottom of the economic pyramid through
PURAs, India should be able to transform its rural economy into cluster based,
economically viable systems in the shortest possible time.
Profile of a typical PURA Mission
Based on the terrain and climatic conditions, there could be
three types of PURA in the East and North East region. They are plain terrain
PURA, hill PURA and coastal PURA. In the plains and coastal regions, the PURA
population may be in the region of 20,000 to 1,00,000, cluster into economic systems
of 20 to 30 villages. In the hilly region, PURA may have a population of 7,500
to 15,000 people in a cluster of 30 to 100 villages or hamlets. Only then we can
assure a high quality of life in the rural areas in a cost effective manner.
Creating competitive advantage for PURAs
PURAs are planned not only as self-sufficient, economically
viable village clusters, but each cluster is endowed with its unique competitive
advantage in the form of a portfolio of special products relevant to that region
and the local talents and skills. In this way each PURA will be able to contribute
to the rest of the economy within and outside the country and thereby contribute
to overall competitive advantage and economic strength of the entire East and
North East region. Let me now give one example to illustrate the competitive advantage
for PURA.
Periyar PURA (Tamilnadu): Periyar PURA complex pioneered
by Periyar Maniammai College of Technology for Women, Vallam, Tanjore is functioning
near Vallam having a cluster of over 65 villages in Tamilnadu which involves a
population of 1 lakh. This PURA complex has all the three connectivities - physical,
electronic and knowledge - leading to economic connectivity. The center of activity
emanates from the women engineering college that provides the electronic and knowledge
connectivity. Periyar PURA has health care centers, primary to post graduate level
education and vocational training centers. This has resulted in large-scale employment
generation and creation of number of entrepreneurs with the active support of
850 self-help groups. Two hundreds acres of waste land has been developed into
a cultivable land with innovative water management schemes such as contour ponds
and water sheds for storing and irrigating the fields. The villagers are busy
in cultivation, planting Jatropha, herbal and medicinal plants, power generation
using bio-mass, food processing and above all running marketing centre. This model
has emanated independent of any government initiative. The committed leadership
has been provided by the engineering institution. Recently, 5 of Periyar PURA
villages are connected through Wi-MAX Wireless and having minimum 4 mbps connectivity
with the Periyar PURA nodal centre. It provides a sustainable economic development
in that region.
Export Products from PURA Clusters: The members
of Periyar PURA in Vallam have selected 40 products out of 123 which will be produced
by Periyar PURA with the support of an Export Promotion Organization. They displayed
these products in an exhibition at New Delhi during February 2007 with remarkable
success; the PURA members now propose to exhibit their products once again in
Japan during June 2007. The feedback from each exhibition will be used to improve
the quality and attributes of the product so that customer satisfaction is enhanced.
Technical Consultancy support for improving products is being provided by academic
institutions like Periyar Maniammai College of Engineering for Women. This type
of localized support centre ensures creation and faster delivery of PURA products
to acceptable national and international standards, by our craftsman and innovators
in rural areas. This type of experience will be very useful in converting bamboo
products and handicraft products produced by rural industries into exportable
products. Now I would like to discuss about Knowledge Platform for eastern states.
Knowledge Platform for Eastern States
Knowledge platform for eastern states will combine the core
competencies of all the states in the region and will become the launch pad for
many innovations that are waiting to be unearthed only by the combined power of
all the scientists and technologists drawn from this region.
Missions for Knowledge Platform: The convergence
of Bio, Nano and ICT is expected to touch every area of concern to the humanity.
The proposed knowledge platform will take up the missions, in some of the areas
given below, which are of utmost urgency to all of us to make East and North East
region a safe, sustainable, peaceful and prosperous place to live:
1. Water: Enhancing quality of existing resources,
rain water harvesting, flood management, interlinking of rivers, seawater desalination
using renewable energy.
2. Energy: Transforming energy security
to energy independence for the Eastern region particularly maximum utilization
of Hydel energy, solar, bio-mass and bio-fuel through Jatropha plantation in certain
waste lands.
3. Healthcare:
Vaccine for HIV/AIDS, Malaria, Tuberculosis and other water borne diseases in
the region and also using traditional medicine and working towards molecule to
drugs programme based on the herbal farms available in the region.
4.
Agriculture and food processing: Increasing the per capita yield from agriculture,
horticulture and floriculture, new-technologies for preservation, developing varieties
of crops for varying climatic conditions.
5. Capacity building:
Capacity building in state-of-the-art internationally competitive skills development
and higher education with research as a focus through partnership among the educational
and R & D institutions of Eastern Region through direct and virtual class
rooms.
6. Eastern Region e-Network: Creating e-Partnership in
education, healthcare, business and trade.
The core competencies of the East and North East region will
have to be pooled for design, development and marketing of world class products
and systems. I would request the participants to consider the establishment of?
Knowledge Platform for Eastern Region? Meeting the unique needs of the regional
development and arrive at a roadmap for its time bound implementation.
Conclusion
We are conscious that GDP alone does not fully reflect in the
quality of life of a large number of people, particularly in rural areas and even
in urban areas. For a comprehensive and inclusive approach to a measure of true
socio-economic development, we have evolved what is called a? National Prosperity
Index (NPI)? which is a summation of (a) annual growth rate of GDP; plus (b) improvement
in quality of life of the people, particularly those living below the poverty
line plus (c) the adoption of a value system derived from our civilizational heritage
in every walk of life.
It may be noted that the concept of National Prosperity Index
includes the factor of the International Human Development Index. That is NPI=a+b+c.
Particularly,? b? is a function of availability of housing, good water, nutrition,
proper sanitation, quality education, quality healthcare and employment potential.
?c? is a function of promoting the joint family system, creation of a spirit of
working together, leading a righteous way of life, removing social inequities,
and above all promoting a conflict free, harmonious society. This will be indicated
by peace in families and communities, reduction in corruption index, reduction
in court cases, elimination of violence against children and women and communal
tensions. There should also be progressive reduction in the number of people living
below the poverty line leading to its becoming near zero by 2017. All our efforts
in improving the national economic performance should be guided by the measured
National Prosperity Index of the nation at any point of time.
As per
Planning Commission projection a sum of over Rs. 3,25,000 Cr. is likely to be
available for the development of East and North East region during the 11th plan
period. North East states in particular has been allotted a sum of Rs.50,000 crores
in the 11th Plan period for providing road connectivity. In addition there are
planned missions for improving the availability of power, electronic connectivity,
creation of inland waterways, air connectivity, rail connectivity, establishment
of industries and enhancing the tourism potential in the north east during the
11th Plan period. Based on these, the participants of this conference should work
out a strategy on how this financial resource could be effectively utilized as
planned for the intended mission in a time bound manner to realize an accelerated
growth of the region leading to better quality of life for all the citizens of
these States.
The Conference
should look at the resource availability in an integrated way for the overall
resurgence of East and North East. I would request the conference to prepare an
Action Plan for enabling transformation of East and North East region to become
economically prosperous, happy, peaceful and safe region in the country well before
2017.
I wish you all success
in creating a resurgent Eastern Region.
May God bless you.
*****
YSR/JS
(Release ID :28057)