By Harsh Shrivastava
Meghalaya has much going for it. It is politically stable. It has minerals. Tourism is booming. Infrastructure is improving. More cars are on the roads of Shillong. The Union government continues to allocate money for the state through various schemes. There is a cohort of confident, young Meghalayans, educated in good schools and colleges who are poised to do much more.
Yet, shockingly, Meghalaya’s getting relatively poorer, as compared to other Indian states. According, to the latest Economic Survey published by the Union Finance Ministry, in 2016-17, the national per capita income was Rs. 1,04,880. At that time, Meghalaya’s per capita income was Rs. 77,585 or 74 percent of the national average. The richest of the seven sister states in the NE in 2016-17 was Manipur, whose per capita income was Rs. 1,27,107 or 121 percent of the national average.
In 2024-25, according to the Economic Survey, the average Indian had an income of Rs. 2,34,859. The average resident of Meghalaya earned Rs. 1,57,141, which was now 67 percent of the national average. That means Meghalaya is falling behind the rest of the country. In eight years, Meghalaya became seven percentage points poorer than the rest of India—from 74 to 67 percent, a very steep fall!
In contrast, Mizoram’s per capita income in 2024-25 was Rs. 2,87,097 or 122 percent of the national average. That means Mizoram has done relatively better (slightly) and Meghalaya has done much worse in eight years. Today, only Manipur is poorer than Meghalaya among the seven sisters, and Mizoram has had many more political and economic changes than touristy, stable Meghalaya. Mizoram’s per capita income in 2015-16 was 64 percent more than Meghalaya. In 2024-25, it was 83 percent more—the gap between Mizoram and Meghalaya is widening! Bangladesh too is richer than Meghalaya; and getting richer.
Eight years is a long time to have corrected matters and changed the direction of Meghalaya, so that it starts catching up with other Indian states, including in the NE. The government has its normal, bureaucratic plans—more schemes from the Union government; more projects; and more tourists. All this isn’t working as it should. The proud people of Meghalaya need to think and work in a different way. More tourism can’t be the only solution. This has its own problems—more traffic to start with! Also, tourists have choices. Sikkim, for instance, is attracting more persons, and they don’t have the hassle of the inner line permit. Also, folks in Delhi and Bombay tell me that they’d rather go to Thailand or Vietnam, which is cheaper.
The government is active and doing many things. I saw that Khasi and Garo have become official languages; and that only Garo tribals will be allowed to stand for the Autonomous District Council of the Garo areas. These are all politically significant, but is all this enough to reverse Meghalaya’s decline? Within Meghalaya itself, I have a feeling that the gap between buzzing, booming Shillong and the Garo areas is widening.
Sometimes, one reads about music stars going to Shillong, which is good—Meghalaya is getting the famous singers, which even Goa, the richest state isn’t. On the other hand, one also continues to reads about accidents in rathole mining. Nowhere does one read of a new factory coming up in Meghalaya or a new large call center that opened or a fashion label or a food brand or a laboratory that produced extraordinary research.
Changing Meghalaya’s course cannot be left only to the government of the day. All classes of citizens must be engaged in thinking about how to improve the future … and then contribute to that future, proactively and productively. This should be done outside the government’s auspices—in an independent think-tank. Funded and housed by academia and business, it should bring together all the rich elements of Meghalaya’s society to discuss, debate, and decide the future of the state and then how to get there.
Such a think-tank should have professors and editors; youth leaders; tribal leaders; women; businesses; church leaders; civil society; managers of companies that are operating in the state; and even representatives of the so-called “outsiders” who are equally citizens of Meghalaya. Yes, government folks and politicians should also be part of this think-tank’s discussions, but they can never be the majority, else it will always be a place where governments will expect to be listened to rather than being equal contributors to the discussions about changing the arc of Meghalaya’s development.
The focus of the think-tank should be only one, but all other factors should be considered. The goal of the think-tank isn’t next year (that’s the responsibility of the government) or the next two to three years (the political party), but at least five if not ten years into the future. For clarity, there should be only one goal—how quickly can Meghalaya catch up with the rest of the country. That is: what will it take and how fast will Meghalaya’s per capita income be equal to India’s per capita income. To go from 67 percent to 100 percent. Even then, Meghalaya will be poorer than Mizoram or Sikkim (which is far richer), but at least it will no longe be among the poorest.
This isn’t easy. In eight years, the state has dropped seven percentage points. It has to stop the descent, turn around, and climb back 33 percentage points. Catching up with the rest of the country, means Meghalaya has to grow faster than the rest of India, which it hasn’t managed to do for so many years. For instance, earlier data shows that in 2011-12, Meghalaya’s per capita income was little over 90 percent of the national average, before falling so steeply. And even if Meghalaya does manage to do all this, it could take 33 years to equalize with the rest of India—and 33 years of growing faster than the country consistently. 33 years from 2026 is 2059!
The think-tank should be more ambitious and have this goal. How can Meghalaya become richer than the rest of India by 2047. Not only catch up, but become a little richer. This can sound almost impossible but has happened before. Meghalaya’s neighbor, Bangladesh was much poorer than India, but in twenty years of sustained socio-economic growth, Bangladesh’s per capita income has caught up with India and in a couple of years, it is likely to become richer than India. If Bangladesh, can do it, so can Meghalaya.
This is a long-term project—over decades, and that is why this has to be driven by outside the government, which will change in every election. Meghalaya’s society must appreciate this goal, understand and contribute to the difficult choices that will have to be made, adjust itself and its expectations, and all the while deal with a world that’s also changing fast. The climate is worsening. AI will eat jobs. Competition from other Indian states will increase. This think-tank needs to think about the future in a more holistic way than merely more schemes and more projects.
The think-tank must make targets and plans to deal with difficult questions of culture and attitudes and politics that need to change? Meghalaya has to do better compared to the past, but better compared to the rest of India, if it has to achieve the very difficult goal of becoming richer than the rest of the nation.
(The writer has 31 years experience in public policy and business. He has worked in companies, industry associations, think tanks, and in the Union government. He’s lectured at leading Indian and foreign colleges. He’s also been a director of the Meghalaya Institute of Governance and written earlier for this newspaper. He can be contacted at [email protected])
