The lifeline of any business is finance. This college-level knowledge has stood the test of time in our lives. Although the privilege of learning this first hand was accorded to students from the Commerce stream but when non-Commerce students like me started knowing more about it, we realised its seminal importance in everybody’s lives. Now that we are having the responsibility of being in public life, and Government, we know how finance is also the lifeline of any State and that of welfare policies meant for the masses.
The month of September was in that sense very important for us. In that month, we launched a ₹5,000 cr scheme to create an ecosystem of entrepreneurship and opportunities by investing in the limitless potential of our youth. This, in the vision of the Prime Minister, will contribute to making our country a nation of job creators. This policy action of building a self-reliant or atma nirbhar Assam will nurture two lakh entrepreneurs in the State. One can imagine the spillover effect once this policy starts producing results at the ground.
But can an entrepreneurship ecosystem work if we do not develop a robust policy to support industries? We are already late by at least a couple of decades when we compare our efforts with that of other States. Needless to say, we are doing a lot of catching up. Hence, I have decided to keep my office open 24X7 to enable big ticket investors to put their plans into action without losing time. This is not optics but an offer to these players to come and be part of the growth journey of Assam, which is now a talk of the town. This year alone we have attracted investment of over ₹11,000 cr which will generate over 10,000 jobs. Among them are big names including the likes of PepsiCo India, which is set to invest over ₹778 cr in Nalbari soon. When industries start growing in satellite areas or regions, it signals the even distribution of the growth pie. One of the key determinants of any State’s industrial policy is their even spread across all regions. This generates employment at all levels, prevents needless crowding of towns or cities thereby making them liveable, and manageable. Our Government is committed to achieving an even growth culture be it industry or entrepreneurship.
Industries and entrepreneurship alone will mean nothing if there are no skill sets of human resources in a State. Hence, the day we assumed responsibility in Dispur, we decided that skilling will be at the heart of our goal to ensure Assam becomes an active stakeholder for Industry 4.0. We are investing ₹4,000 cr in setting up a dedicated skill university and upgrading our ITIs and polytechnics. All these are meant to facilitate availability of quality manpower for investors who come with their ideas and finance to our State. This is the least we can do for them, and frankly speaking we are expected to do it for them.
Yet another measure that has given me and my Government a lot of satisfaction was the implementation of the Category III of the Assam Microfinance Incentive & Relief Scheme (AMFIRS) 2021 under which we repaid ₹291 cr of outstanding loans of over 2.22 lakh women borrowers. By doing so, we have achieved two goals: Bringing these beneficiaries back into the credit worthy category of the financial system and enabling them to live a life of dignity and rearming them with financial responsibility for years to come. Had we not resorted to a policy like this, we would have killed off the entrepreneurial instincts of lakhs of women in the State.
No wonder, Assam became the best performing States under the very ambitious and forward-looking PM SVANidhi Scheme in disbursing loans to micro entrepreneurs who were hit hard during Covid. Our disbursal rate, which stood at 97% when I mused over this piece, was the best in the country. This is something we can surely be proud of. A Government is known not only by virtue of laying the red carpet for big-ticket investors but also by how it takes care of those at the “bottom of the pyramid”. This was one instance where we showed to the world how it should be done.
On September 17, we created history with a citizen-led movement to build a tree economy and a green world by planting millions of commercial saplings in one day and achieving a figure of over 1 cr saplings in about nine days and creating multiple records which signalled collective action and cooperation across the State. These saplings will yield us financial benefits for generations and establish Assam’s place in India as a champion green State. At the same time, it would also lead to the rejuvenation of wood-based industries which, at one point in time, were our pride.
