Panellists:
- Smt. Dr. Ishita Ganguli Tripathy, Additional Development Commissioner, Ministry of MSME, Govt. of India.
- Smt. TiarenlaRutsa, Deputy Director, Tourism Department, GoN.
- Shri. Deepak Kumar Murmu, Sr. Divisional Operations Manager, North East Frontier Railway, Govt. of India
- Shri. Som Kamei, Postmaster General NE-II, Govt. of India.
- Shri. Pandurang Taware, Founder, Agri Tourism Development Corporation, Maharashtra
- Shri. AbabeEzung, MD, East Air & Charter Service and Finance Secretary, BAN.
Moderator: Dr. Aotoshi, Advisor, BAN, CEO of Window media, Chairman, Echahaba Tea Growers’ Cooperative Society Ltd.
Setting the context, moderator of the session Dr. Aotoshi said that this discussion could not have come at a more opportune time as the national logistics policy has recently been launched.
‘Stakeholder and policymakers should come together’
During the second session, the topics focused on: agriculture and tourism integration; infield traditional farming experience; agriculture logistics and air cargo and connectivity.
Additional development commissioner, Ministry of MSME, government of India, Dr. Ishita Ganguli Tripathy stated that the Udyam certificate was the basic certificate required to identify an enterprise as an MSME. She stated that this was important for any enterprise in order to avail the benefits under the schemes.
Dr. Ishita opined that policy combination could be as dynamic as possible if stakeholders could make their contributions. She remarked that MSME Nagaland has a “huge potential” and in order to make sure that this potential actually becomes reality, she suggested the creation of more awareness.
In the context of the North East region, she stated that “Awareness is tremendously lacking”. In this regard, she called on all the policymakers and the stakeholders to come together to create more awareness on MSME and its schemes and benefits, especially for young entrepreneurs and women.
‘Organize agriculture festivals’
Founder, Agri Tourism Development Corporation, Maharashtra, Pandurang Taware in his talk stressed on how important it was for farmers and entrepreneurs to have excellent knowledge about their respective states.
Pandurang, who is a farmer himself urged upon the agri& allied sectors as well as Nagas to organize agriculture festivals based on foods, flowers and medicinal plants.
“Other states do not have as much medicinal plants as Nagaland, Nagaland has good soil, good agri climate, he stated, and stressed on how the people had opportunities right outside their homes, which could be used to farm for self-sustenance.
He also stated that entrepreneurs who ventured into farming could create jobs for people in the state, wherein, others would follow suit and the state’s economy would simultaneously flourish.
‘Develop air cargo facility and air strips’
BAN finance secretary and MD, East Air & Charter Service, AbabeEzung stressed on how a time has come where businesses and entrepreneurship in Nagaland has slowly been growing. He informed that BAN has been taking steps to act as a medium so that various issues concerning the livelihoods of farmers, entrepreneurship, etc. could be addressed and effectively resolved through discourse like these. He highlighted the need for proper air cargo facilities to be installed at Dimapur airport and air strips in different parts of Nagaland for boosting air connectivity.
Deputy director, Tourism department, TiarenlaRutsa stated that of late, the Tourism department has been focusing on agriculture, handloom and handicraft, homestays, etc., while senior divisional operations manager, Lumding Division, Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR), Deepak Kumar Murmu and postmaster general NE-II, Som Kamei spoke on workings of the NFR and department of Posts respectively.
