Flights Of Fantasy
[ M Panging Pao ]
“The youth need to be enabled to become job generators from job seekers,”
APJ Abdul Kalam
Parents and elders advise their children to study hard, get good grades and get a good job. Students toil hard, undergo rigorous coaching classes to pass competitive exams and join good colleges to become engineers, doctors, lecturers, IAS, IPS, defence officers, etc. Almost all students’ main target is to get a government job. Government jobs provide job stability, bungalows, vehicles, easy lifestyles and pension benefits. Those who cannot make it to government jobs join the private sector avenues like PSUs, MNCs and big companies to make a livelihood.
As per reports, government jobs or the public sector is one of the largest employers in our country with over 1.7 crore Indians employed, amounting to about 1.2 percent of India’s population. However, government jobs are limited. With salary and pension bills mounting, there is pressure on governments to reduce government jobs. India produces around 3.7 crore graduates every year. Numbers indicate that there are much lesser jobs both in government and private sectors for these graduates. The big challenge for us as a nation is to find gainful employment for these huge youth population.
Therefore many young citizens should aim to transform from job seekers to job creators. Anyone who creates new business or industries and creates work opportunities for others is a job creator. Job creators are generally entrepreneurs who have a vision along with passion. Towards facilitating this transformation, the government has started many schemes and policies, like Startup India, Stand-up India, Atmanirbhar Bharat, Vocal for Local, etc. Many youths are taking up entrepreneurship and about 1,200-1,500 startups are coming up every year and creating more than 50,000 direct jobs and numerous indirect jobs.
There is a great scope for entrepreneurship in Arunachal and the Northeast. Abundant with natural resources, many startups or industries could come up in the agri-horti sector, food processing, manufacturing, tourism and services sectors. Natural resources like wood products, bamboo, handicrafts, organic fruits and vegetables are available in large quantities. Fruits like apple, kiwi, oranges, valencia, pineapple and spices like
cardamom, ginger, garlic, turmeric are grown in large quantities. Plantations of rubber, areca nut, palm oil and tea are increasing. There is huge potential for food/fruit processing industries like juice, packaged spices, pickles, jams and bamboo/wood-based industries like furniture, home construction, interiors, etc.
Arunachal has also vast potential in the tourism sector and could transform into the top tourist destination in the country. There is enormous scope for hotels, resorts, homestays, restaurants, taxi services, adventure sports, trekking, etc.
With economic activity picking up, there is also scope for professionals like chartered accountants, tax consultants, certified valuators, empanelled lawyers, etc.
If there is so much potential in the entrepreneurship/manufacturing/agri-horti/tourism sectors, why are our youths still running after government jobs? The government and the society’s elders must promote our youths to become entrepreneurs. Are you planning to be a job seeker or a job creator? (The contributor is retired Group Captain, Indian Air Force)
