Since May this year when the phrase ‘vocal for local’ was first heard as an appeal from the Prime Minister while unveiling the Rs 20 lakh crore special economic package for fighting Covid, it has become hugely popular. No doubt, with simple yet penetrating words, it has managed to generate a mass acceptance and unsurprisingly has almost become colloquial.

 The idea of making the nation self-reliant has been in the national socio-economic discourse since the early days of independence and in the current time when the pandemic has compelled the country to think beyond the compulsions of economic globalisation, where overseas dependency has been unavoidable, its need, thankfully, has come to the fore. While a pan-national pervasiveness of this new mantra can be observed, in the Northeast in general and Arunachal in particular, it has also been warmly accepted. A belief among the region’s people has started growing that this might be the ‘missing link’ that has so far remained elusive in establishing an appropriate economic integration with the mainland. It’s a fact that the aspiration, hitherto, has seen only a fractional realisation and there are plenty of reasons behind it, elaboration of which will warrant a whole chapter on the region’s socio-economic-political history. 

Overlapping this episode, the question now relevant is how to make it more enlivening and transform it into a major driving force in the region’s economic ecosystem. For that, an extra emphasis will be needed compared to the rest of India where infrastructural preconditions and the ‘ease’ necessary for economic entities to thrive, are already available more or less. The policy-making hierarchies must be knowledgeable about it and it requires to be seen how the institutional efforts get delivered in the long-run to transform the slogan into something remarkable.

It can be recalled that the Union DoNER Minister in July while championing the ‘vocal for local’ and the ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ goals had emphatically remarked that bamboo has the potential to transform the post-Covid economy of the NE and will be a key component in the above objectives. Not only bamboo, there are countless others falling into the broad categories of handicrafts, horticulture, organic and traditional agriculture, medicinal herbs and many more unexplored ones that have genuine market acceptance and can be apt supplements to the self-reliance vision. So far, this great tribal human resource, which is also a great economic asset for the nation in terms of skill and quality of produce, be it any kind, has hardly been recognised and the geographical isolation has been made more extreme by this prolonged economic separation.

‘Vocal for local’ has enkindled a sense of renewed hope in the NE no doubt. But to extend real encouragement to indigenous entrepreneurship, a whole lot has to be done within least-possible time. Government(s) and their institutions must guarantee the minimum infrastructure and hassle-free availability of finance with minimum red-tapism. Without these fundamentals, the vision will remain a mere slogan only.