With MoUs worth over Rs 5.8 lakh crore being signed during Advantage Assam 2.0 last week, people are now looking forward to how these MoUs will get translated into reality. Feeling the pulse, Chief Minister Dr. Himanta Biswa Sarma has done well to promptly announce that a roadmap is currently under preparation for turning these MoUs into reality, which will be published in another six months’ time. He has already provided an outline of the roadmap, according to which the government will start discussions with the companies about various issues, including the various incentives they will be provided. The four most important inputs to help the MoUs turn out to be a reality include land, quality uninterrupted power supply, quality connectivity, and finally quality manpower. While land can be procured (the government already has a land bank in place), power supply can be assured, and connectivity can be established by the government, quality manpower is one area that will require the most careful handling. The dream of converting Assam from a demand state to a supply state can be realised only when the local manpower is efficient, hard-working, dedicated, sincere, and ready to take risks. In the scheme of things to come, there will be practically no benefit if local candidates are recruited by these companies just to meet the challenge of the burgeoning unemployment problem. No dharna, no strike, and no demonstration can create quality manpower in Assam. It is a specialised skill and the capability to work hard that will be most important. Easygoing, happy-go-lucky, and holiday-loving people have no business in the scheme of things to come. The curriculum and syllabuses of the Industrial Training Institutes and other professional institutes have to be immediately revised. Moreover, since Japan has promised to recruit about 50,000 young people from Assam in the next few years to work in the island country and Japanese companies in the Southeast Asia region, a well-drawn programme has to be put in place to enable young job seekers to learn the Japanese language and other skills that these companies are likely to look for in the candidates. About land, it is for the government to allay fears that the indigenous people will lose their land to the industries that are going to come up. A law may probably be enacted to prevent companies from buying up land from individual owners, and provisions may be made that land shall be provided only by the government land bank. Several state and central PSUs have been occupying a lot of extra land, which has been lying unused. Such land can also be allotted to the companies. Regarding power, the best way is to aggressively ensure that the companies go for green power and solar power to meet their requirements. These are some of the basic issues that need to be kept in mind while preparing the roadmap to turn the MoUs into reality and make Assam a front-ranking state in realising the dream of Viksit Bharat by 2047.