DIMAPUR — The North Eastern Regional Centre of the National Institute of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj (NERC-NIRDPR) off campus write shop on development strategy for the north eastern states was held at the State Institute of Rural Development (SIRD) in Kohima with representative from fifteenth departments on Tuesday.
The assistant professor of NIRDPR-NERC, Dr. MK Shrivastava, while briefing on the course on development strategy, stated that despite north eastern states being endowed with natural resources and a vibrant cultural identity, the region struggles with issues like weak infrastructure, limited access to markets and social inequalities and recent conflicts like Manipur, a DIPR report stated.
“Development is a process that creates growth, progress, positive change in economic, environmental, social and demographic component without damaging the resources of the environment,” said Dr. Shrivastava.
He asserted that sustainability development is important for development because it can help to reduce poverty, improve resource efficiency and make communities more resilient.
In order to uplift the economy, he stated that focused efforts are required to be made taking into account both strength and weakness to develop a sustainable development strategy that would enable the state to utilise its rich natural resources and other resources in a sustainable way.
“This will involve refocusing on sectors that offers competitive advantages in order to minimise the resources deficit, cover up development deficit and accelerate the pace of development,” he added.
Dr. Shrivastava added that the prime objectives of the write shop was to formulate a calibrated strategy for the development of the state with focus on rural areas, which would help in identifying the competitive advantages sectors and products determining the gabs, setting priorities paving the way for an action plans assessing risky factors and bringing together different institution to initiatives to enhance rural connectivity for raising the standard of the people.
The director of NIRDPR-NERC, Dr. R Murugesan, in his inaugural address, said that the write shop would cover the boarder indices of development core sectors of the rural economy, connectivity, infrastructure and services, health and nutrition, skills development and employment, rural industries, banking and tourism sector.
The programme was chaired by senior lecturer at SIRD, Dr. Kintso, and the welcome address was delivered by additional director, Imlimenla Longkumer.