18 Jun 2020  |   04:28am IST

For Goa, these are ‘ideas’, whose time has come

With 350 ideas to work with, Goa now has almost an idea a day for a year; the next step is to make these ideas work

Vikant Sahay;

The Ideas for Goa report is out and a partner in this exercise of generating ideas from stakeholders of Goa’s progress. Herald Café, reports on an important milestone in this initiative

In a unique initiative last month launched by the real stakeholders of Goa’s future, professionals, entrepreneurs, writers and backed by Herald, ideas were generated for Goa’s rejuvenation across various fields. 350 ideas were generated in 25 days, close to one idea per day in a year.

 

The analysis report is now ready and it will help the stakeholders to go deeper into action so that these ideas could materialise into projects.

 Nearly 155 people contributed 350 unique ideas in 25 days that generated 1472 votes during a time when it was easy for Goans to be weighed down by anxiety about health and livelihoods. These ideas spanned 12 sectors with tourism and hospitality and local food ecosystems contributing 96 (27.4 per cent) and 92 (26.3 per cent) ideas respectively reaffirming 

the oversized impact these sectors have on the Goan economy.

The top five themes that have emerged are:  (a) Make Goa food independent by investing in Local Food Ecosystems; (b) Improve administration and governance to facilitate ease of business; (c) Reposition Goa to become an experiential and alternative tourism destination; (d) Leverage digital solutions to empower all sections of society and drive greater productivity; (e) Make a step change in urban planning and infrastructure as it is a foundational requirement for any prosperous state.

The good news is the vision of Goa 2.0 is closer to reality than we might think as 210 (60 per cent) ideas are either concrete (at least an initial implementation plan is in place), incremental (require only a small improvement over existing systems) or require repurposing of existing capabilities. This optimism is further borne out by our assessment 265 (76 per cent) ideas require low to medium levels of investment.

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The report is being shared with all stakeholders - the state and municipal governments, private enterprise, entrepreneurs, incubators, NGOs and the citizens of Goa. “We hope this report provides them the necessary insights about what matters most to people who love Goa and serves as a decision support tool to adapt one or more ideas and bring them to reality”, said Mayank Pandya, one of the founder members for Ideas for Goa

”.

Given the overwhelming response and positive feedback, the Ideas for Goa platform will remain available for anyone who loves Goa to contribute and harvest ideas. This decision has yielded an additional 24 amazing ideas in the 10 days since data from this report was extracted on May 25 this year. The intention is to make Ideas for Goa the go to ideas repository for a prosperous and sustainable Goa.