Smallest state best in education, inclusive development and tourism: Meghalaya

On 6 November, the University of Science and Technology, Meghalaya, the first private university in the Northeast region, was awarded an accreditation rating of “A Grade” by the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC). This is not surprising news for Meghalaya, which has been home to some prestigious higher educational institutions like IIM-Shillong and North-Eastern Hill University (NEHU). However, what is more encouraging is that the state has performed well in primary education as well. With 3,474 schools for every 100,000 children in the age group of 10 to 14 years, the state records the highest performance under this parameter among all states. At 1.06, the gender parity index (enrollment ratio of boys to boys) in Meghalaya is also the highest among smaller states.

When it comes to standards under inclusive development, the state has performed quite well. In smaller states, it recorded the highest share of persons benefiting from MGNREGA-229 for every 1,000 persons. With an offtake rate of 99.09 per cent, the state has performed well in the public distribution system of food grains, the third largest among smaller states, slightly below Nagaland and Delhi.

Despite Covid playing a massive spoilsport for the tourism industry, which had received 1.2 million domestic tourists before the pandemic, Meghalaya had the second largest share of foreign tourists among the smaller northeastern states. The state is now planning to give micro focus on this revenue generating sector. For example, in November, Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma announced a special package of Rs 13 crore for the development of tourism infrastructure and facilities in Nongkhnam Island, Asia’s second largest river island after Majuli in Assam. The state government is considering ways and means to link fisheries and tourism sector to increase revenue collection and generate employment opportunities for the youth.