In Naxal heartland, experts explore development plan

Country's maiden tribal global summit held in restive Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh explored the development model with the aggressive participation of the tribal population.

The summit was organised by the NITI Aayog in Dantewada---infamous across the globe for Naxal violence. Tribal entrepreneurs from various sectors across the country and abroad attended the summit that was aimed to address the problems of the tribal community such as poverty, malnutrition, low literacy and poor health.

The speakers stressed for greater people’s participation in the development plan. NITI Aayog Advisor Shrikar Nayak said summits would help fostering public-private partnership and shared best practices to empower the tribal community.

“It is high time we respect tribal wisdom and bring the tribals into mainstream development. Their invaluable knowledge will help us with innovative ideas to improve our livelihood and environment security.” M S Swaminathan said.

Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh said Bastar’s had been endowed with abundant natural resources and the demand for organic products had been largely increasing in contemporary world. Summits like these will definitely help to reduce the gap between global market and local entrepreneurs, he said.

The summit highlighted India’s enabling environment for innovation and entrepreneurship – including actions by the government to empower the tribals, increase the ease of doing business, eliminating unnecessary regulations, and supporting startups.

The Global Tribal Entrepreneurship Summit at Dantewada, Chhattisgarh is a part of 8th Global Entrepreneurship Summit being held in India from November 28th to 30th, 2017 in partnership with the Government of the United States of America. This summit will be addressed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi while the US delegation will be led by Ms. Ivanka Trump, Advisor to President Donald Trump.