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SHILLONG: Member of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council, Shamika Ravi, observed that governance was a problem in North East India and that was a reason for its sluggish economic development.
Ravi was in the state to deliver a key note address at the Inaugural function of the 19th Annual Conference of the North East Economic Association (NEEA) & National Seminar on Friday organized by the Department of Economics, North Eastern Hill University (NEHU), Shillong.
“Governance is a problem because funds have been coming in but a lot of the funds have been sitting underutilize. To have inclusive growth, it is important to have local economies to grow,” she told reporters on Friday.
She added, “The local economies will have to have a local economic reform agenda which is state specific.”
New Ideas
Speaking on the Act East Policy, she said that the policy will work on the ground. A lot of infrastructural connectivity projects are being driven from the Center but a lot of new ideas need to emerge locally.
“Each of the states will have to take it as an opportunity to make additional connections and new projects,” Ravi said.
According to her, each state has different interest and each state have different capabilities.
Look East and Act East have to be much more than infrastructural connectivity and this is where the local governments have a role to play.
Commenting on rural-urban migration, she said movement of population from rural to urban areas was not a cause of concern even as she stressed on empowerment of local urban bodies in the long run.
“It is a natural transformation of rural people moving to urban areas. I don’t think we should try to hold them back. We should to create more local opportunities to keep the youth back towards harnessing the potential of these states.”
She pointed out that the movement of people from rural areas to urban areas, from small cities to big cities indicates economic growth.
“Economic activities are not always locally available. So in the short run, those movements would happen,” Ravi said.
No food insecurity
Ravi maintained that increased automation, increased productivity and with the Green Revolution in place, there is no need for 50 per cent of the rural population to grow food for the remaining 50 per cent.
“We need to plan better but I don’t think India is anywhere close to be food insecure. We have in abundance. The problem is we don’t have active policy of distribution,” she said.
Ravi cited an instance that when the country experiences high inflation rate, the storage was still full. She said, “It goes to show that distribution is a bigger concern. Procurement (of food) is not concern right now.”
Suggesting diversification of food, she said that North East has lots of potential as it has lots of local crops.
“It (the North Eastern Region) has to have its own contextualized local policies. People should be allowed to move out of agriculture. We should not hold them back,” she added.
Delivering a key note address at the programme, Ravi said that the country has transformed enormously in the last 27 years since 1991 after the economy started opening up in many ways from a controlled economy.
Stating that the biggest constraints that the country is facing is not of capital, she said, “We are still an essentially a poor country though we have it in our mentality and sentiments, we tend to discuss as if we are a first world country but the truth is we still remain a developing country.”
The North East on an average is doing rather well compared to the rest of the country in terms of maternal Mortality Rate (MMR) and Infant Mortality Rate (IMR).
In Meghalaya, life expectancy of both male and female is significantly lower than the all India average and that should be a cause of concern.
Education and skill development
Speaking about the Education sector in the state, she said, “Meghalaya like the rest of the country, it has managed to get a lot of its children in the primary school system.”
“The enrollments rates are high but the biggest problem in Meghalaya is that very few of these students are moving to the secondary school, which means that enrollment starts but dropouts remain very high she said.
Ravi stated that the cost of skilling a population is very high if the quality of education is very low and said, “Skilling cannot be a substitute for education. Education is fundamental.”
Turning to investment in human capital,i.e. investment in health and education sectors which according to her are the two areas which is going to lead to higher productivity.
Aadhar
Speaking about aadhar, she said, “We have crossed the debate of whether we need aadhar or not. It is important for this region to wake up to the reality. Aadhar is not a perfect tool. It has to be constantly improved and this is where technology, privacy and other concerns become very fundamental and those debates have to go on.”
Some of the recommendations she gave is to have clear policy priority put up by the state government with time-frame, monitoring and evaluation wherein scholars, academics also have role to play.
“This also raises the accountability of the government,” Ravi said.