Namrata Kath Hazarika | 10 Jan, 2013
India's North Eastern states are facing immense shortages in getting trained manpower for various industrial works in sectors like textile and handicrafts, rubber, bamboo making, horticulture and so on.
"Trained manpower is difficult to get in the Northeast region in India but you can get educated manpower that needs to be trained. Skill development is important in Northeast (NE) region," said the Union Minister for Development of Northeast Region (DoNER), Paban Singh Ghatowar in New Delhi on Wednesday.
He told SME Times that the region requires potential private investors, which is very minimal at the moment. If the flow of investment increases, this will further generate employment within the region. Naturally, skilling people for such jobs have to be increased.
"We are talking to institutions for doing the same. We are approaching those institutions that have the industry knowledge," the DoNER minister said.
"We are also encouraging the prospective entrepreneurs to invest in the Northeast region. We, with the handholding of the states are usually trying to help the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to step up their industries, which will create employment in the region and help the people," he said on the sidelines of the event on 'North East Business Summit'.
While addressing the event here he also mentioned that the special fiscal package under North East Industrial Policy (NEIP) has so far failed to trigger major investment flow in the region in the manner it was conceived. However, NEIP did lead to some investment in industrial units in and around Guwahati in tea, coal, plastics, cement, cosmetics and metallurgy, but could not attract investors to other parts of the region.
He added that during the 11th Plan period, 336 units (private and public) showed intentions to invest about Rs 38,892 crore in the region. But, according to the 12th Plan, the share of investment (based on letter of intent) in the North-East was only 0.58 per cent of the total intended investment at the national level.
The Minister of Commerce and Industry, Tripura, Jitendra Choudhury also said to SME Times that they are setting up Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) in the state so that it can produced every year skilled and trained manpower.
"Our one of the ITIs is being promoted as the centre of excellence on rubber. Not only rubber but now we are having around 40 industrial training institutes in the state," he said.
Every year these ITIs are expected to train more than 1500 people. And, every training institute will become center of excellence in particular, the minister added.
Also, Indian Chamber of Commerce's Chairman, M.K.Saharia have suggested that it is important to train entrepreneurs especially the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the North East Region.
It is necessary to take these entrepreneurs from the local area and let them meet the industry experts in the rest of India. This will help entrepreneurs in Northeast to develop their own expertise and skills. In fact, the cluster approach is a very significant module for developing SMEs in the NE region, he added.
