Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb is optimistic about approximately enhancing the high-quality rubber manufacturing and yield.

RN Bhaskar

In the coming years, business people will witness the emergence of Agartala as the hub for transportation to the Northeast and Chittagong as the biggest trans-shipment hub inside the Bay of Bengal. It remains to be seen if Agartala will be capable of capitalizing on this geopolitical gain.

In a few methods, Tripura has been luckier than maximum different North-Eastern states. Its decadal population increase has been quite near the countrywide decadal increase of population of 17.7%, especially since the Nineties. There has been little inflow of migrants since then. Moreover, with the nation being bordered using Bangladesh on three aspects – the fourth side is attached to India), the normalizing of relations among Bangladesh and India have intended an exceptional deal of peace for this nation.

Hitherto, it has in large part been an importer. It imports rice, veggies, garments, and constructing cloth. Even milk (often within the form of powder). Much of that is paid for by oil and gasoline (extra later) and using the rubber industry. That is one cause why the state authorities now desire Tripura to notch up plans to grow to be a large exporter of goods and offerings.

Tripura stays the second-biggest producer of rubber in India (after Kerala) though the country has completed nothing to place this difference on the map of these united states. Even the rubber board makes a passing reference to Tripura. But undergo the annual report of the Rubber Board, underneath the ministry of trade, and you may discover that Tripura does have fundamental R&D centers for rubber (pg sixty-seven of the file).

But its contribution stays unknown, and the non-public zone is also to be blamed. True, Tripura has the second-largest variety of certified dealers in India for rubber – Kerala has 6,686, but Tripura trails at 529 (u . S . A . General 8,252 — pg eighty-one of the record), And on the subject of applying for additional licenses in 2016-17, there had been 734 applications from Kerala, and handiest four from Tripura.

The kingdom bills for around 60,000-eighty,000 tonnes out of the 690,000 tonnes of rubber produced yearly (the country website does now not provide any records in this). The information must be received from secondary sources. More details about rubber production may be acquired from here.

The Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb is constructive approximately enhancing the fine of production and the yield. He factors to the reality that Tripura has masses of herbal gasoline. Oil India and ONGC have their presence in this state, and Vedanta is attempting to present here.

Deb is trying to lure traders into using herbal gas to extract carbon black, which may be used with natural rubber for tire manufacturing. We are attempting to steer buyers to come back right here and use our assets,” he told this correspondent. The fact remains that India is a booming market. It is the fourth largest tire market inside the globe. The industry itself accounted for an annual turnover of $ 12 seven hundred million in 2015-16, with the tire sector contributing to $7 six hundred million, non-tire region $ 5,100 million, and export $ 2 three hundred million. India is the sixth biggest producer of herbal rubber, and the second biggest customer of natural rubber (for industries as diverse as balls to balloons)

Another enterprise Tripura is focused on is milk. It believes it could be the main participant inside the dairy farming and livestock rearing enterprise. In December 2018, Amul (absolutely Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation) flew into Agartala to work out approaches with the country to develop dairy farming.

The North East holds out the biggest promise of dairy development. It has masses of water, foliage, and chaff. NDDB is already selling a milk collection center and cooperative farms in Guwahati, while Amul might put its center in Tripura.

The North East imports milk (usually milk powder) worth around Rs.18,000 crore each yr, with Tripura money owed for Rs 1,100 crore). Tripura will now be related via Chittagong to nearly all the other South East Asian nations that are additionally milk-poor. Thus, Tripura should have the foremost markets – North East India and southeast Asia. Of course, this can also make it a hub for meat and leather-based-items as well.

Another conscious location is travel and tourism. Tripura has many of the most picturesque spots – lake palaces, sanctuaries, and places of exceptional herbal beauty. But the leader minister’s primary attention is on spiritual tourism. His reasoning is simple. Some of the holiest of shrines – in particular, the ones related to Shiva and Devi – can be discovered here. Pilgrims are much less fussy approximately lodging and tour comforts. So that could be an excellent vicinity to start. The development in accessibility with air, street, river, and rail will simplest assist the country carry in more tourists.

“Today, we do no longer have a single four-star or 5-megastar motel. We will enhance our accommodations in our locations of tourism, after which start advertising them as nicely,” he says.

Travel and tourism is certainly a top-notch way to make money, increase visibility and create employment.

There are other markets as nicely. Tripura imports around 20,000 tonnes of fish annually (from Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, and Bangladesh). It has already created nurseries for fish fingerlings for farmers as each rural household has an outdoor pond. The government desires to improve fisheries, each for neighborhood consumption as well as for exports.

But a huge bold plan is scientific tourism. Almost eighty-five 000 Bangladeshis come to India every 12 months, spending almost Rs four lakh each for clinical wishes. Deb desires to alternate this. He has already presented the two largest hospitals in Agartala to the biggest hospital chains in India.

“We are in discussions. Once we clinch the deal, it’s going to gain both Tripura and the Bangladeshis. We will broaden the scientific tourism enterprise, at the same time as the Bangladesh patients will shop at the least Rs 1 lakh on tour, due to the fact we are next door,” he says.