Atmanirbhar Bharat not about incremental growth but human capacity building, national seminar held in Sivasagar

SIVASAGAR: In tune with the Azadi Ka Amrit Mahtosav, IQAC of Gargaon College of Sivasagar organized a national seminar on ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat: Opportunities and Challenges with Special Focus on North East India’ on Saturday.

Speaking at the event, Dr Sabyasachi Mahanta, eminent academic, poet, and Principal of Gargaon College, highlighted that an Atmanirbhar Bharat (self-reliant India) advocates ‘vocal for local’. The Atmanirbhar Bharat mission, under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, envisages preparing India for severe competition in global supply chains, improving business, empowering MSMEs, attracting investments, particularly FDI, and boosting ‘Make in India’ policies. Dr Mahanta hoped that deliberations in the national seminar would go a long way in paving the way for new thinking and successful implementation of the mission of Atmanirbhar Bharat.

Biman Chandra Boruah, the governing body president, inaugurated the seminar. In his keynote address, Prof Debabrata Das, the Vice Chancellor of the Rajiv Gandhi University of Co-operative Management, inspired the audience with his thought-provoking lecture on ‘Strategizing for Atmanirbhar Bharat’. Prof Das highlighted that Atmanirbhar Bharat was not about incremental growth but human capacity building and preparing for a quantum jump to transform the Indian economy into a US$ 7 trillion economic powerhouse in the next two decades. He pointed out that the five pillars of Atmanirbhar Bharat were economy, infrastructure, system, demography, and demand.

Another dignitary of the inaugural session was Dr Alok Ranjan Dutta, Associate Professor, Department of Economics, who briefly highlighted the prospects and challenges of Atmanirbhar Bharat. Apart from pointing out the areas with scope for entrepreneurship, he also argued that India needed to work on import substitution and export promotion for self-reliance.

Dr Shyamolima Saikia, Assistant Professor of English at Gargaon College, anchored the inaugural session. Researchers and academics from different parts of India participated in the event and presented about 40 research papers in the seminar that was held in a hybrid mode.