Editor,
I would like to draw attention to the recent announcement of shortlisted candidates for fellows and assistant fellows under the Mukhya Mantri Viksit Arunachal Fellowship Programme (MMVAFP) by IIM Shillong, which has caused deep disappointment among the enthusiast aspirants of the state.
While the fellowship is envisioned as a transformative initiative to foster grassroots development and build a cadre of committed professionals to work in coordination with the state government machinery, the shortlisting criteria have exposed some flaws in its design and execution.
As per the official notification, the fellowship offers 35 positions for fellows and 65 for assistant fellows, with a focus on deploying them in district planning units and government departments. However, the selection criteria and the shortlist paint an ironic picture.
The most glaring concern is the overwhelming numbers of candidates from outside Arunachal Pradesh in the shortlist, while only a small number of local tribal youths have made the cut. For a fellowship named after the development of Arunachal, this outcome runs counter to the spirit of the scheme. The absence of a mechanism to ensure proportional representation for indigenous candidates means that the very communities the programme claims to serve are underrepresented in its implementation.
The official guidelines mandate a minimum of 60% marks in both undergraduate and postgraduate degrees, while qualifications from reputed institutions such as IITs, IIMs, ISB, or TISS are given preference. This academic threshold, while seemingly merit-based, fails to account for the field experience and practical abilities of candidates, given that no opportunity is provided, meaning that the academic performance does not often reflect the practical abilities of a person.
Worse still, Scheduled Tribe candidates of Arunachal, who are supposed to be the frontrunners in the process of Viksit Arunachal, haven’t been considered, having fallen short of the rigid 60% benchmark in undergraduate and postgraduate categories, regardless of their local knowledge, field experience, deep socio-cultural understanding and, above all, the enthusiasm of the youths to actively participate in the Viksit Arunachal journey.
Many young, educated, and passionate local youths remain unemployed, despite possessing firsthand knowledge of the challenges in their area – from rural healthcare gaps to educational bottlenecks. These individuals could have offered invaluable grassroots insights to the fellowship, making the programme more substantive and practical-oriented.
The fellowship is being implemented in partnership with IIM Shillong, with selection ‘purely on merit’ through written examinations and interviews. But ‘merit’ here is narrowly defined by academic marks and institutional pedigree, sidelining equally important qualities like community outreach, local landscape, language proficiency, and hands-on experiences of rural challenges.
If the state government is serious about achieving the fellowship’s stated objectives, it must ensure:
- Proportional representation for APST candidates, creating an opportunity for them to actively participate and contribute towards Viksit Arunachal’s journey.
- Prioritize greater weightage to local knowledge, field work, and community engagement and outreach.
- Broaden the definition of ‘merit’ beyond academic percentages to include on-ground capability and practical abilities.
The Mukhya Mantri Viksit Arunachal Fellowship Programme holds immense potential to be a game-changer for the state’s governance and development. But without urgent course of correction, it risks turning into another top-down initiative where outsiders take the lead while local voices remain on the sidelines.
For true progress, development in Arunachal must be by its people as much as it is for its people.
Aspirant