The Commerce and Industries Department, Government of Meghalaya in collaboration with the Meghalaya Institute of governance organised a one day workshop on “Streamlining Governance in Public Sector Enterprises of North East Region” on the 1st of June, 2015 at the State Convention Centre, Shillong. The event was grace by the presence of Chief Guest, Shri. H.D.R Lyngdoh, Hon’ble Minister of Cooperation, GAD, Transport of Meghalaya, Shri. R.M. Mishra, IAS, Development Commissioner and DG of MIG, Prof. R.K. Mishra, Director, Institute of Public Enterprise, Dr. B.D.R. Tiwari, IAS, Executive Director, MIG and Dr. F. Verghese, managing Director, Kerela State Industrial Enterprise Ltd., Government of Kerela.
The welcome addressed was delivered by Mr. R.M Mishra. In his address he alluded to Meghalaya’s traditional way of life of living in a “public way”. He reinforced this statement by giving the example of how villages come together to construct bridges, clean rivers, all of which can be clubbed as public enterprise. “Meghalaya had an economy 10% higher than the rest of the country during the British Raj” and this was all due to public enterprise in some sense of the word as Mr. Mishra had put it. According to him public enterprise is not merely “opening up cooperation for profit but rather a group of people coming together with a common objective”.
The next speaker was Mr. Verghese who spoke succinctly on the growth of Public Sector Undertakings (PSU). He stated that “public enterprise plays a crucial role in the social economic development of a country but must function efficiently and effectively”. In his speech he spoke of the growth of PSUs in the country from 5 PSUs with an investment of 0.3 billion to in 1951 to 249 PSUs in 2010 with a total investment of 5800 billion.
Prof. R.K. Mishra delivered a very insightful speech on the problems faced by PSUs in the North East Region and how these problems can be categorised and improved on. He also spoke on the need to follow the middle path meaning that “the public sector cannot be allowed to hijack the country but they cannot be ignored as they are required for the growth of the country.”
The Chief Guest, Shri. H.D.R Lyngdoh, Hon’ble Minister of Cooperation, in his delivery stated that, “public sector enterprises have historically played a very important role in the development of the country after independence” to mend a broken colonial economy. He we t on to say that “different public sector enterprises have been started by the Union Government and different state government for building up a fiscal and social infrastructure, strengthening of certain key industries and financial services to provide the substance and space for the development of the overall country.” He declared the workshop open at the end of the speech.
The vote of thanks was delivered by Dr. Tiware to conclude the opening ceremony. Two technical sessions followed the inauguration.