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Journalism of Courage
Economic development of the Northeastern region can be best accelerated by creation of nature capital, which in turn would help attract massive eco-capital to the region, a blueprint released by operations consulting firm Global Management Services says.
“Governments in the Northeast, in their quest for accelerated economic development, may be tempted to take the linear straight-line approach by adopting a mass industrialisation strategy. But, while this may yield some returns in the short run, the strategy is not sustainable over the long run,” GMS chairman Ranjit Barthakur said.
He said such approaches would deplete the region’s natural assets instead of securitising them for the future. “What the Northeast should focus on is to securitise its bio-diversity assets, ensure a clean environment and explore its water resources for converting the environment into an engine for growth,” he added.
GMS has already joined hands with Tata Tea in alternate cropping, and brought large tracts of fallow land within its tea estates under cultivation of ginger, floriculture, vegetables and fisheries. It has also tied up with ILFS and IFC for co-investing in the recent divestment of Tata Tea to form the Amalgamated Plantations Private Ltd (APPL), while Morarka Foundation has joined hands with GMS to set up a joint venture company to convert large tracts of agricultural land in Assam as certified organic land.
“Over 1,200 farmers have already enrolled with us to shift to organic farming, and we have targeted converting 1,500 hectare of land in the next 12 months into certified organic land,” added Prabir Banerjea, director (operations) of GMS.
With a proper blueprint in place, the Northeast could attract investment to the tune of about Rs 3 lakh crore, which itself could help wipe out poverty and double the income of the people, he said. “Our internal mandate is to get over Rs 3,00,000 crore of eco-investments into the region to really drive the formation of nature capital in the next four to five years,” Barthakur added.
