More than just for Royals!

IIPM’s 36th Glorious Year of Academic Excellence

More than just for Royals!
Rajiv Arora, Chairman, RTDC & RSHC explains the need for the hour

"Small Scale industries are the platform on which this state can thrive. There is an issue though – the state authorities have to burn the midnight oil for executing that big dream in royal style..."

Rajasthan, like Kerala has been very good at marketing and promoting itself. That’s the reason why the state has been hugely successful in the past decade in creating a brand image of its own. Today, whether it’s Europe or US, everybody knows this state as the place of Royal kings & Maharajas. So, from a branding perspective, I feel that the state has been successful in cashing-in on its rich legacy. There are many states in the country, which have their own history but very few, like Rajasthan have been able to market their history and culture. The credit should also go to our tourism ministry, which has been relentlessly promoting tourism through all means and for relentlessly preserving the resources. This is critical because branding doesn’t sustain if you don’t deliver what you promise.

This was from the tourism perspective, where the state has done excellently well. But when it comes to promoting small scale or the cottage industry and development of infrastructure, the state has a lot left to do. Handicrafts and jewellery are very profitable industries which have a growing demand in the global market. But nothing has been done to that extent to promote these small scale industries, neither in terms of marketing nor in terms of setting up infrastructure for these cottage industries.

Small scale industries can act as the back bone for the rural economy, but focus has not been given to these areas. It would be wrong to say that the state hasn’t done much in the name of infrastructure. In fact compared to other northern states, the speed of development and progress has been much higher. But strangely, this growth has been across cities like Jaipur and Udaipur. In a state where majority of the growth is covered by rural areas, not much has been done to improve the rural economy. Agreed that compared to other states, the desert state has always had a scarcity of abundant water and therefore infrastructure development is a big challenge. But if roads can be constructed, then power and other infrastructural developments are not impossible.

If you see the record of the growth of tourism projects and creation of roads in this state, then you would realise that the maximum development has come from Private-Public participation projects. And in the past two years, many airports and helipads have been developed through collaboration between the state government and private enterprises. So, for the development of rural economy, the government should encourage more such joint efforts. Moving on to the urban economy, I am not against urbanisation and a state flourishes in the long run only when it has a strong urban economy which is supported by adequate industrialisation. The speed of urbanisation in Rajasthan over the last year has been much higher than that in Gujarat or any other state, and it is estimated that over the next five years, 27% of Rajasthan’s population will belong to the cities and towns. So, the development happening in Jodhpur or Udaipur is clearly directed in the right way. All the global players are willing to invest in these cities. The Government of Rajasthan has decided to accord high priority to the development of cities and five principal towns of Rajasthan, namely Jaipur, Jodhpur, Bikaner, Udaipur and Kota will see major changes in the coming years. The state government is also planning to announce Jaipur as a heritage city and this will boom tourism further as our earlier programme like, ‘Atithi Devo Bhavah’, which increased tourism by at least 20% y-o-y.

For more articles, Click on IIPM Article.

Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008

An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).

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