Development / Northeast

GUWAHATI, June 16 – Union Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh today assured that the Centre would accord top priority to human resource development in the north eastern region. The Union Minister, during a meeting with Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi here today, also assured that the Centre would provide all possible help for developing the infrastructure for improving the standard of education in the region, an official release said here.

The Chief Minister, on his part, thanked the Union Minister for the decision taken by the Ministry to spend 10 per cent of its budgetary allocation...

SHILLONG, JUNE 15 – Conceding to the demands of the north-eastern Chief Ministers, the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) has withdrawn the draft Cabinet note seeking exemption from earmarking of 10 per cent of gross budgetary support for the region. The decision was announced at a press conference by HRD Minister Arjun Singh on the concluding day of the review meeting of HRD schemes with the Chief Ministers of the region at Hotel Pinewood here this evening. Singh had presided over the meeting.

Singh also announced that an Indian Institute of Management (IIM) would be set up...

GUWAHATI, June 13 (UNI): Policies and tax concessions, meant to aid the entrepreneurs in the north-eastern region, are instead helping investors from mainland India rake in a cool profit before calling it a day, foreign trade Joint Director General MK Mero said.

The North-east centric policies, conceived and implemented to gain a foothold in the national and the international markets, are instead helping investors from outside the region than the target group, Mero said.

Under the North-East Industrial Policy (NEIP), investors in the region enjoy an income tax holiday for ten years and a...

GUWAHATI, June 13: New-age construction methods, structural stability and earthquake-resistance are lifting up the image of bamboo from just a cheap building material to a viable one. Now, teaming up with steel and concrete and glass, bamboo will be seen in modern constructions across the city and the rest of the region.

"Bamboo has been used by the people here for ages, but had acquired the image of a `poor man’s timber’, unfit for large stable and modern houses," remarked Kamesh Salam, project co-ordinator of the Cane and Bamboo Technology Centre, which has put up these structures for...

GUWAHATI, June 10: Eighteen elegant showrooms at the Indian Exposition Mart at Noida, New Delhi would soon be graced with fashion wears and handicrafts exclusively from the North-east. The North Eastern Development Finance Corporation’s (NEDFi) proposal to book the stalls in the proposed India Exposition Mart at New Delhi, developed by the Export Promotion Council of Handicrafts has been approved and sanctioned by the North Eastern Council (NEC). The permanent stalls have been taken on lease by NEDFi at a cost of Rs 2.34 crore. The money has been sanctioned by the NEC.

The objective is to...

SHILLONG, JUNE 10- A bamboo technology ‘mother park’ will be set up in the North East to exploit the immense but untapped potential of the bamboo sector in the region. A memorandum of understand-ing(MoU) has been signed between the NEC-sponsored Cane and Bamboo Technology Centre(CTBC) and the Building Materials Technology Promotion Council(BMTPC), Ministry of Urban Development , Government of India to set up the mother park, NEC sources here said.

As per the MoU, the two organisations will work together to achieve the objective of promotion and sustainable development of bamboo resources of...

New Delhi, June 4: Three years after it was created and within three weeks of getting its first in-charge from the Northeast, the department for development of the northeastern region (Doner) has metamorphosed into a full-fledged ministry. Doner secretary Reva Nayyar said the “push” for the change in status followed the appointment of P.R. Kyndiah, who was elected to Parliament from Shillong constituency, as the Union minister for Northeast development and tribal affairs.

“He is a cabinet minister and it would have looked funny had he been in charge of only a department. This (transition from...

GUWAHATI, June 3 – The North Eastern Development Finance Corporation Ltd. (NEDFi) has reduced its Prime Lending Rate (PLR) from 11 per cent to 10 per cent with effect from June 1, 2004. The objective of this one per cent reduction of PLR is to benefit the entrepreneurs of the North-East. It may be mentioned that financial assistance is provided to first generation entrepreneurs and woman entrepreneurs at a concessional rate of interest along with the soft loan component. The effective rate of interest under the North East Equity Fund Scheme, which is meant for first generation entrepreneurs...

GUWAHATI, June 3 — In a bid to give a boost to the cross border trade between India and Myanmar, Commerce Ministry has approved Rs 1.70 crore to the Longwa trade point of Nagaland. The funds has been approved for development of township and improvement of the existing roads in the area. The Nagaland Government has been demanding to declare Longwa as a trade point in order to increase the volume of legal trade with Myanmar. In 2003,Customs and the Foreign Trade departments had conducted a feasibility study and suggested improving the transportation system in the area for facilitating trade...

GUWAHATI, May 31: DONER and Tribal Affairs Minister PR Kyndiah today said that his Ministry would ensure that funds were released to the north-eastern States timely and the schemes completed on schedule. Kyndiah gave this assurance when he called on Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi at the latter’s residence here.

Gogoi apprised Kyndiah of the various problems plaguing the State like floods and erosion, burgering insurgency-related expenditure, modernization of the police force, erosion problem of Majuli, hundred per cent reservation of jobs for locals in fourth grades of Central Government...