These are rather strange times. People quarantined at home, some working from home and others are busy watching Netflix. Jobs are expected to be lost in thousands which will have social, economic, and political consequences. People are struggling to visualise this world that will be a post-COVID 19 world though some attempts are being made. An initiative in Goa called IdeasforGoa is inviting ideas from everyone who wishes the very best for the state.
This is how the initiative was born. According to the website created for this initiative, spearheaded by the core team of professionals, with no monetary involvement of expectation,
“We want to create a space and conditions to leverage people’s desire to participate for the greater good, give back to society in times of need, creativity, and innovativeness to generate disruptive and exponential ideas that can be implemented quickly and sustainably. This platform is open to all to contribute ideas regardless of their background and is free of cost. Most importantly and best of all, ideas generated are available to everyone for free”
The core team consists of Mayank Pandya, Rajesh Jog, DS Prashant and Sanjeev Khandelwal, traversing fields of technology, entrepreneurship and business.
Speaking to Herald which is partnering this initiative, Rajesh Jog " These are troubled times and we have to look at ways to ensure the economy of the state improves and we need new ideas to transform the economy. Many people have ideas and present them in private platforms amongst friends and that’s that. This platform allows people to present them on a public forum where they can be read by everyone and it can, if found really interesting by someone in the private or public sector. This could then lead to the growth of new startups and an expansion of the economy".
Said D S Prashant, CEO of FIIRE, an incubation center at the Don Bosco Engineering College, Fatorda another core member “Some people would naturally select and idea and go ahead with a business or the team of four would set up and help those interested in setting up a business by introducing them to concerned people”
As of today, there have been approximately around 100 ideas that have been sent on sectors as diverse as tourism and hospitality, local food ecosystems, creative services, learning and knowledge, health, and wellness, banking, retail and water management to name just a few. These ideas have been presented by Goans and non-Goans living in Goa and in other parts of the country.
Jog said the CM was expected to make a statement on this next week and he hoped this would attract the attention of more people which would mean more ideas that would benefit the state. The ideas, he said were free and the person contributing them would have to do so without expecting any remuneration. Some of the ideas presented so far include the importance of increasing the timeline of operations in tourism spots and how one could go about it and also the importance of wellness and adventure tourism. People have also articulated the idea of doing away with heavy school bags for children and providing them with a tablet. An idea perhaps whose time has come.
Everyone is hopeful that Goia will respond to this initiative and keep the ideas flowing