FICCI in association with Amway held a Webinar on ‘Northeastern region can emerge as the education hub for Asia’.
Agartala: “North East is a land of immense potentialities but the task is to convert the potentialities into possibilities”, said Tripura Deputy Chief Minister Jishnu Dev Varma.
“Notwithstanding all-round gloom”, he felt, “Covid19 pandemic has also opened opportunities before us to be innovative and more futuristic”.
The Deputy Chief Minister was taking part in a Webinar organized FICCI in association with Amway on Sunday. The Webinar was held on ‘Northeastern region can emerge as the education hub for Asia’.
It is good to see that we are talking about making NE an education hub at a time when Covid19 is affecting all strata of every society across the globe
Hailing the initiative of FICCI, Dev Varma said, it is good to see that we are talking about making NE an education hub at a time when Covid19 is affecting all strata of every society across the globe – this is surely a futuristic plan and clearly show that Covid19 has failed to dampen our spirit.
In this connection, the Deputy Chief Minister also pointed out challenges that the Northern region would have to address to emerge as an Education Hub for Asia.
He said, “Connectivity is the first and foremost challenge in this case. Next, we have issues which are more like Social nature specific to the region and challenge of creating a bridge between employability and employment”.
Pointing to ways lying ahead, Dev Varma said, Proper redressal of these issues and judicious use of available resources can go a long way in developing this region as an education hub in Asia.
He strongly batted for boosting connectivity in region for holistic development in education, Tourism and hospitality sectors.
Speaking at the same web seminar Th. Radheshyam Singh, Minister of education, Government of Manipur underlined the importance of inspiring & igniting young minds to bring about positive change in the society.
It is essential that young students develop a sense of curiosity in everything that is happening around them and contributes to their self-development in a more holistic way, he added.
Earlier, Ranjit Barthakur, Chairman of FICCI Northeast Advisory Council, highlighting the importance of making Northeast a hub for education & research said each Northeastern state can look at setting up a BPO for education and healthcare.
The shift in the pattern of education that we currently have in this region & the kind of education we want in years down the line, will broadly depend on the approach being adopted by the stakeholders, he said.
He further added that, in order to tap the Asian market, it is essential that sufficient impetus is laid on the education sector by making major investments in the sector.
Rajat Banerji, Mentor, FICCI Direct Selling Taskforce and Vice-President, Corporate Affairs, Amway, mentioned about the latent potential of the Northeastern region in terms of the vast pool of talented manpower available & which can be utilized for the gradual upliftment of the region.
Others who spoke at the webinar include Prof. Satyadeo Poddar, Vice-Chancellor of Maharaja Bir Bikram University of Tripura, Dr. Charvak, Associate Professor of Assam University and an eminent journalist who talked about the need to focus on education of the indigenous people to ensure development and peace in the region, Dr. Chavi Asrani, from Indian council for research on international economic relations (ICRIER), Dr. Pranjal Kr. Phukan, Chief Manager from BCPL who talked on the industry perspective of education, Dr. O. Ramesh Singh, an expert in Public health nutrition, Pradeep Dwivedi, an expert from the education & human resource sector.
Several other educationists, experts, consultants, entrepreneurs, research scholars and students from many parts of the country participated in the discussion & shared their views.
