Meghalaya chief minister Conrad K. Sangma on Thursday said that every region in the country has its own economy and challenges.
Sangma, who attended the World Economic Summit at New Delhi in a panel discussion titled “Union of States” talked about the diverse situation within India.
The panel discussion was on the broad theme — “From Kashmir and Kanyakumari to Kohima and Kutch, India is witnessing one of the largest national urban transformations of the 21st century. How can cities, states and regions advance structural reforms, address inequality and be engines of growth?”
“Even though we are one country, but every region has its own economy and challenges and there are lots of different stories,” the Meghalaya CM pointed out.
Stating that every state should consider on its strengths, the Meghalaya chief minister said, “We face a lot of challenges, and we might disagree with the Central government, but we need to work out what we do best.”
“Meghalaya, for example, is pioneering a ‘Smart Villages’ concept by using technology to improve quality of life in villages,” he added.
The Meghalaya chief minister explained that Smart Village is a community based project empowered by Digital Technologies and Open Innovation platforms to Access Global Market.
“The initiative will provide good education and healthcare, access to clean water, sanitation and nutrition, the growth of productive enterprises to boost incomes, and enhanced security, gender equality and democratic engagement, which will enable people to live in their respective village,” he said.
Meghalaya is set to start the Smart Village initiative, and 100 villages will be selected for implementing the project.
Elaborating the concept of smart village, Sangma said that through this initiative, Meghalaya aimed to increase the overall standard of living and quality of life, simultaneously creating economic, social, and environmental value.
The initiative will work on intervention for the prosperity of the community through business model innovation approach, generating sustainable and scalable business models to provide a holistic development of the villages.
Recently, the CM was in the University of Berkeley in California, where an MoU between Meghalaya and the University was signed for partnership for five years. Professor Darwin and the smart village team were committed to make selected villages in Meghalaya smarter.
The other panelists of the discussion included Punjab CM Amarinder Singh, Madhya Pradesh CM Kamal Nath, Andhra Pradesh minister for industries, commerce and information technology Mekapati Goutham Reddy and Telangana minister for IT and industries K.T Rama Rao.
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