Assam is a gateway to Southeast Asia, Global South: Jyotiraditya Scindia in Guwahati

Union minister for communications and development of northeastern region (DONER) Jyotiraditya Scindia on Tuesday said Assam has immense potential for growth as the state is the gateway to South-East Asia and the Global South.

Addressing the session ‘I-way to Viksit Assam’ on the first day of the Advantage Assam 2.0 Infrastructure and Investment Summit, Scindia outlined the plans under his ministries for development of the state and the rest of northeast.

“Assam today is a gateway to South-East Asia. It is a gateway to the Global South. Assam is a manufacturing and logistics powerhouse, and the state is certainly in the days to come the land of limitless possibilities,” Scindia said.

Further, he mentioned how under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India has grown at a rate of around 6.5 % to 7% in the past decade and Assam has witnessed a decadal growth rate of 12.6%. He said last year, the state grew at over 19% and in the current financial year it will grow 15.6%.

“PM Modi has a relationship of heart with the northeastern region. An area which was known as the last fringes of India has today been brought to the centre of India’s economic growth rate. In the last 10 years, the Centre has contributed ₹5.22 lakh crore to the developmental budget of northeast,” the Union minister said.

Scindia noted how 10 years back the region had only 9 airports, but now it has increased to 17. The Guwahati airport, the busiest in the region, has become a connectivity hub from handling 3.4 million passengers annually to 13.5 million passengers at present, he pointed out.

“The infrastructure sector in Assam is bustling with potential. But the change today across the world doesn’t lie on infrastructure alone, it also lies on information technology (IT) and communication like AI, machine learning etc. Our PM is committed that India leads on telecom and IT,” he said.

Scindia noted that the Centre has devoted close to ₹4,000 crores in Assam for the IT and communications sectors, and also announced that after two 5G labs in IIT-Guwahati and NIT-Silchar, a third one will be set up un Gauhati University. The state will also get four hyperscale data centres, which will be Asia’s largest, with a size of 1 million square feet.

“A country that had no unicorns 10 years ago has 118 of them today. We want to ensure that the next unicorns come not only from urban India but from rural India as well. For that not the physical highway, but the IT highway has been driven to every Indian’s home by PM Modi,” Scindia added.