Guwahati: Wild tea found in the forests will be manufactured and sold at the Rs 226 crore Unity Mall which is under construction in the Betkuchi area of Guwahati, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma told Business North East at a public event recently.
“Our entrepreneurs are preparing tea from tea trees”, Biswa Sarma said when asked about what kinds of local products would be featured in the Unity Mall. “We had not heard of it – now, it will come under the One District One Product scheme", he underlined, adding that the aroma and taste of the tea found growing in the wild are quite different.
“It (the tea) is organic and grows very large as cutting is not there (in the forests)”, he said, adding that other products unique to the state will also be featured in the stalls at the 18,000 square meter mall. Assam is the biggest producer of tea in India and produces more than half the country's tea production, according to a state government portal.
Unlike the conventional tea industry, which started centuries ago during the British era, wild tea in India is just a few years old. Assam-based start-ups, such as Beyondarie, have been marketing it as an exotic variant of the beverage.
The Unity Mall is part of the central government’s efforts to promote the concept of ‘Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat’ (one India, best India) through promoting made-in-India products.
At the same event, Biswa Sarma stressed that the government intends to provide vistas of earning to unemployed youth through MSMEs and entrepreneurship.
“I think Assam has 12 lakh unemployed youth by government source and we are taking care of 2 lakh youth through MSME and other avenues; at the same time, almost 2-3 lakh people are getting jobs outside”, he said.
According to the Chief Minister, Assam will be "in a very good state" in regard to the unemployment ratio by the end of 2026.
“Earlier we projected that our unemployment is 25 lakh, but now we have proper data - it is in between 12-12.5 lakh”, he said. “So proper unemployment rate will now be very less in Assam; so far, I think we have created 50,000 jobs industries.”
Last year in December, Biswa Sarma said his government was close to providing jobs to 1 lakh unemployed youths of the state. According to media reports, 88,080 have been created since he assumed charge in 2021. Providing jobs to unemployed youth was one of his core promises after he assumed the post.
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