Midas Touch

(Contributions to Midas Touch are eligible for tax benefits under Section 80G of the Income Tax Act, 1961.) Midas Touch is a nongovernmental organization founded in 2009 based at Imphal. It mainly focusses on Biodiversity conservation and we firmly believe in greener earth and better living. We aim to create a sustainable livelihood through community participation while simultaneously conserving the biodiversity. Employment generation of the youth and sustainable living are the foremost goal of our organization. The biodiversity of Manipur comprises endemic floral diversity, particularly medicinal plants of importance to pharmaceutical industry, and unique faunal diversity. Nevertheless, it is very unfortunate that this great land of biodiversity is least explored probably due to geographical and political constraints. Different anthropogenic and socio-economic factors have perturbed the pristine ecology of this region, leading to environmental degradation. We argue that effective conservation of biodiversity is essential for human survival and the maintenance of ecosystem processes. Despite some conservation successes (especially at local scales) and increasing public and government interest in living sustainably, biodiversity continues to decline. Successful conservation approaches need to be reinforced and adequately financed. In addition, however, more radical changes are required that recognize biodiversity as a global public good, that integrate biodiversity conservation into policies and decision frameworks for resource production ,consumption ,sustainable agriculture and that focus on wider institutional and societal changes to enable more effective implementation of policy. Sustainable agriculture using innovation and technology would bring a commendable social changes in this remote state crippled with turmoil and hurdles like economic blockade in National Highways, bandhs paralyzing the state often. Organic farming , climate change, focus on medicinal and aromatic plants along with value added products , traditional knowledge conservation are priority areas of our organization which directly or indirectly falls under the main objective of biodiversity conservation. The economy of Manipur, North East India is characterized by a high rate of unemployment and poverty, , low capital formation, inadequate infrastructural facilities, geographical isolation, communication bottlenecks and practically no industrialization.

• Vision:
To envision an inclusive society ,alleviate poverty and generate livelihood with sustainability as a core theme

• Objective:

I. To create a model for sustainable livelihood generation and capacity building in rural areas with science and technology intervention. Employment generation of the youth esp. in remote villages within the operational area by paving an alternative path through the process of biodiversity conservation. To spread awareness amongst marginal farmers about utilizing innovation and technology for sustainable agriculture in remote rural areas of Manipur in particular and spread it across our country. IV. To conserve our biodiversity for better Earth and better living in order to bring sustainable development and help in reducing global warming and climate change.