The illiterate of the future will not be the person who cannot read. It will be the person who does not know how to learn.
Alvin Toffler
Goa – being small that it is, one wouldn’t expect the island-ish nature of its business stakeholders. Although many entrepreneurs hold memberships to more than one trade or industry organisations, it is not uncommon for them to isolate their business interests from that of their contemporaries – who may be stakeholders in a different vertical. What has happened with this kind of pigeon-holed interest building is that the industry as a whole has been devoid of a unified voice, when it comes to real issues.
Of late, the state has witnessed cross currents with issues like taxi, shack allotment, amendment of transfer/lease guidelines of plots in industrial estates, or public outcry on the proposed marina. It appears that each industry association linked to the issue is battling it out single-handedly – and leaves one to wonder that maybe the voice of business needs some serious augmenting and larger amplification.
The lack of such a united voice can render even a strong case on merits not attain its desired outcome. With stronger voice, I also mean the ability to put in the best arguments for the industry.
Goa’s small size is often cited as a hurdle to the idea of its industrial imprint. For many years, another excuse that was conveniently thrown at industry hopefuls was about the land that was locked in SEZ litigation. Now that a substantial part of the land has been repatriated into the system and availability, there should have been a larger debate on its use – and more pressure should have been exerted on the government to look at things differently – with an eye on the future of the state’s business prospects. One hears that the unlocking of the SEZ land freeze has once again opened the floodgates for backroom machinations for allotment of industrial plots – irrespective of the industrial dividends that it may accrue to the state or its younger entrepreneurs. The same cookie-cutter method is at play – and these plots are eventually eyed for exactly the wrong reason than what they are intended for – its real estate proposition. The state government has also amended the Goa (Regulation of Land Development and Building Construction) Act-2008 and the Goa Land Development and Building Construction Regulations-2010. The state wants to provide around 3.7 lakh square metres of land in different industrial estates which were reserved as ‘open spaces’ to ‘new investments’.
The powers-that-be may have not sensed it, but the winds of change have blown over Goa and the generation that built an engineering-led manufacturing entrepreneurial growth engine has made way for engineering-led ideas ventures and startups. That industrial land was not available could have been one of the reasons for that; or that millennials just don’t have the mojo or patience to put in to make an industrial or manufacturing business work, unlike a generation or two that preceded them. No one can question the logic of a new generation – but one can always stay in sync with new ideas.
Sadly, what we have done with a raging issue is to host small events to show that we are in tune with the times. In an age replete with tokenism and social media optics, this attitude to not walk the real talk, while pretending to do so, may prove counter-productive. This is exactly where business organisations need to step in and draft ideas for a younger Goa. We need to accept that there is a serious blurring of lines in the vision that Goa’s powers-that-be (political and industrial) is toying with vis-à-vis the real aspirations of its youngsters.
It may be too late in the day for governments to ideate on the next wave… but a stronger, educated and more united industry voice can definitely lead the way
