Excelsior Correspondent
NEW DELHI, July 7: Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh has announced several new initiatives for Northeast youth, some of which have already been rolled out while others are in the pipeline.
Addressing an interactive session here,organized by Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) and conducted by noted journalist Ayaz Memon, Dr Jitendra Singh said, while for the young Start-Ups, the Ministry of Northeast (DoNER) has come out with a “Venture Fund”, on the other hand, considering the incredible talent of the Northeast youth in excelling in international athletics and gymnastics, a state-of-the-art Sports University will soon come up in Manipur, for which the land has already been acquired and a convenient date is being sought for the laying of the foundation stone by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It may be recalled, he said, that a Sports University for Manipur was one of the earliest announcements made by Prime Minister Modi soon after the present government took over in 2014.
Dr Jitendra Singh also mooted the idea of holding coaching classes for preparation of Civil Services Exams via satellite and Tele-education for youth living in remote parts of peripheral States, where they felt deprived of such facility unlike their counterparts in some of the metros and other cities.
It is amazing, Dr Jitendra Singh said, how the youth of Northeast had the capacity and determination to excel in diverse fields of activity, notwithstanding the constraints of lack of infrastructure or training / coaching facilities. Citing the example of the Tripura girl, Deepak Karmakar, who achieved world fame through her performance in Gymnastics, he said, he was pleased to note that the Ministry of DoNER had also tried to mentor her during her preparatory phase, even though in her early phase she did not have enough access to any formal training and she also came from a humble background.
With a fast-track improvement in connectivity and means of transport during the last three years, Dr Jitendra Singh said, the business houses as well as investors have started showing interest in Northeast, which would ultimately augur well for job creation and employment. Even this year, he disclosed there was a significant increase in the tourist flow, following which at one stage, there was no accommodation available for visitors in places like Gangtok and Shillong. This, he said, had become possible because of the tour operators from the rest of the country giving priority to Northeast, as a result of which the local youth had also taken to livelihood through Home-tourism.
In response to a query, Dr Jitendra Singh said, while Public-private- Participation (PPP) model will help in carrying forward all these initiatives, the private sector can be encouraged to spend a substantial part of CSR (Corporate Social-Responsibility) funds in these remote areas. For this purpose, he said, he would also take up with the government, the feasibility of giving tax exemption for CSR spent in this region or fixing a certain mandatory percentage of CSR for this purpose.
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