As an important follow-up to the Arunachal Pradesh State Industrial and Investment Policy-2020 which was launched by the Union Home Minister more than eight months back, bureaucrats from as many as 13 Central ministries, state government and the chief of a national-level investment facilitation agency on Thursday engaged themselves in an extensive exchange of deliberations. The outcome suggests that there are strong reasons for an increase of expectation as the Central ministries as well the industry representative have in principle agreed to extend all necessary support in implementation of the policy. After these assurances, responsibilities of the rank and file of the state administration have increased manifold now and it’s time to prove that Arunachal is a serious contender.

It has always been a matter of anguish for the people of the state, particularly the younger segment that despite being the largest in terms of geographical expanse and undoubtedly the richest in terms of natural resources in the NE, Arunachal has never been a front-ranking choice of investors, both from within the country and outside. A sense of frustration has grown with these young people and this explains why the hunt for government jobs has only intensified over the years. But, government jobs in the state, like anywhere in the country are limited and to mitigate the problem of galloping unemployment, industries must come up beside a conducive ecosystem where entrepreneurial dreams can be realized without much hiccups. May sound acerbic, but the fact is that the state has done very little in the above directions and irrespective of the colours of governments that were in chair particularly after gaining the coveted statehood, the story remained unchanged, although the ‘promises’ kept pouring.

Yet another set of such assurances have arrived, this time under the banner of the new state industrial policy and its ultimate outcome, officially estimated and claimed to be ‘game-changing’ will be the reflection of the present day’s seriousness. It’s all on the paper now and to transform this into something tangible, what needs to be done requires no reiteration. Invaluable time has been wasted and neither the resources of the state given free by nature nor its human resources have been harnessed even to a fraction of the potential to open the windows of economic prosperity. It must be understood that the corporates, of whatever stature, will seek the basics such as electricity, road connectivity, internet and others and will invest only with the precondition that they will face no issues regarding these.

The state must be hyper-active in bringing paradigm changes in these ‘basics’ and all ongoing infra development activities must not fail the completion deadlines. It’s only through this 'line of action' the state can prove that it’s a serious contender of industrialization.