In an interaction held at Imphal with Dr Rahul Banerjee, a chartered accountant with a PhD in his credit who gives lectures on supply chain management in multiple foreign Universities and an entrepreneur who has successfully consulted the Government of Sikkim and a consultative committee member of National Disaster Management Authority was on his maiden visit to Manipur and spoke exclusively with the Editor-in-chief of KRC TIMES on the potential of economic activities of the region and particularly in the state of Manipur.

Dr. Rahul highlighted that India produces 96% of handloom products worldwide. India is number one in cotton production and number two in silk. The CAGR growth of the cotton Industry is almost 12%-13%, contributing to 5% of Indian GDP and around 18% of industrial output.

He informed that as initiated by their intervention, today the Sikkim Lepcha fabric found its signature place in the handloom industry both for fashion and for production. So the handloom industry of Manipur should take a cue from Sikkim and be part of the revolution. I see lots happening for Manipur in the space of handloom, says Dr Banerjee.

Secondly, he highlighted the hydropower potential of Manipur which is almost 2000 megawatts of power.

I see the animation Centre which again we did for Sikkim. MSME has funded numerous projects in the NorthEast and this is what the state government can look into and form animation centres across Manipur.

I was lucky enough to be appointed as part of the consulting on disaster management in G20 when India had the presidency last year. An important communique emerged on disaster wrist and resilience (DRR) financing. Disaster is something that can be a satellite of every vertical. Disaster affects everybody in their personal life, professional life and in everybody’s environment. I think Manipur can be the vanguard of all activities considering that Manipur faced the greatest of the earthquakes in 2016 and there are several lists of disasters that Manipur faces. The recent flood is something which I would like to talk about. This is where we can bring NDMA policies into play.

There is a twin-brother mission known as the National Bamboo Mission Yojana. How this bamboo mission yojana is interlinked with national disaster management authority policy is that bamboo has a specific signature quality related to climate change as the planting of bamboo and creation of bamboo products bring down the temperature positively. Manipur again can write the signature leadership role in managing climate change, he echoed.

Dr Rahul also spoke about ‘kechua farming’ as the northeast has many varieties of insects and he highlighted how his intervention has helped Sikkim. He believes that the same can be undertaken in the state of Manipur which can again be a contributor to the economy in a big way.

Rahul also spoke about his entrepreneurial activities where his companies can come into the picture, particularly in the medical field where he would like to set up a supply change to make available indispensable and expensive drugs easily to the general public of the state.

He also spoke about introducing telemedicine from his company and bringing the best of the services to the people on their doorstep.

Appreciating the discipline, innovative mindset and youthfulness of Manipuri youth, Dr. Banerjee feels that he is at home as his childhood was spent in the hills of Darjeeling.

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