SHILLONG: The 8th Sustainable Mountain Development Summit (SMDS-VIII) concluded here on Tuesday with a call for action on a few identified issues critical to the building of an enabling ecosystem for entrepreneurs in the Indian Himalayan region.
Summing up the outcomes of the summit deliberations, IMI Councillor and former MP from Sikkim, P.D Rai, zeroed in few points that demand immediate action — the most important of them being the creation of tax and financial literacy among the local entrepreneurs, and the institution of a climate risk fund to shore up entrepreneurship in the mountain region.
The summit urged the lawmakers representing the mountain states and uplands of the Indian Himalayan region to urgently take up these recommendations at the appropriate policy platform.
Rai said the key recommendations would be further deliberated up at the meeting of the lawmakers’ forum, which had been scheduled for Wednesday here.
“Lawmakers need to mull over these recommendations and take actions”, he opined.
Taking a step forward in its agenda to encourage entrepreneurship, the summit came up with a concrete decision to set up a start-up incubation centre in partnership with IMI, Villgro and IIM, Shillong. He also suggested that many of the government schemes should be better targeted.
One of the other most important issues emerged during the two-day marathon discussions was the recognition of the need for a Himalayan brand for products of the mountain region.
The summit also paid a rich tribute to late founder president of IMI, R.S Tolia, who played a pioneering role in setting up the IMI.
An award instituted in his honour was awarded to Satyanarayan Bharti for his life-long works on community forestry and water conservation in Uttarakhand.
The baton for the next Sustainable Mountain Development Summit 2020 was handed over to STS Lepcha of SDFU — the IMI State Chapter in Uttarakhand.
