Development / Northeast

GUWAHATI, Jan 30 ? The Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) will create 2.5 lakh jobs for the people of the NE region in the Tenth Five Year Plan period, its chairman Dr Mahesh Sharma said here today. Dr Sharma, straight from the two-day 513th meeting of the KVIC that ended at Itanagar yesterday, addressing a press conference. Most of these jobs targeted at, will be created in the village industry sector, he said, adding, the Commission has earmarked a fund of Rs 550 crore for the purpose. However, the accomplishment of the task will need an amount of Rs 1,000 crore, according to a...

SHILLONG, Jan 30 ? With the outstanding power-bills of the North East States due to North Eastern Electrical Power Corporation (NEEPCO) touching a staggering Rs 1395 crore, the NEEPCO has threatened to regulate power supply of the defaulting States. While the axe is likely to fall on all the States in the region in due course, action is initially expected to be taken against Mizoram, Manipur and Tripura as these States are yet to come forward to settle their dues, NEEPCO sources revealed.

The biggest defaulter, however, is Assam with the Assam State Electricity Board (ASEB) owing over Rs 912...

GUWAHATI, Jan 29 ? The South Asia Enterprise Development Facility (SEDF) signed an MoU with the NEDFi in order to boost the Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) portfolio of the NEDFi so that the Corporation gets helped in respect of reducing its outstanding non-performing loans.

The SEDF headquartered at Dhaka is a multi-donor organisation promoted by the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and managed by the SME Department of the World Bank.

The SEDF?s overall objective is to enhance competitiveness and growth of SMEs in the north-east India are starved off funds, the SEDF will try...

GUWAHATI, Jan 28 ? Air connectivity in the North-east is all set to receive a big boost with the induction of four ATR-42 aircraft by Alliance Air, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Indian Airlines. While two ATR-42 aircraft have already been pressed into service since last December, two more will join the Alliance Air fleet by end of March.

With all the four aircraft in operation, flights between Kolkata-Dimapur, Kolkata-Aizawl, Guwahati-Agartala, Guwahati-Lilabari, Guwahati-Silchar, Guwahati-Imphal, Silchar-Imphal, Guwahati-Aizawl, Guwahati-Dimapur and Silchar-Agartala will be a daily affair...

TEZU, Jan 29 ? The Union Civil Aviation Ministry will continue to give top priority to air connectivity in the North East, Union Civil Aviation Minister Syed Shahnawaz Hussain said here today. More and more towns in the region will be brought under the air map, he said. Hussain, who was speaking to The Assam Tribune on the sidelines of the ongoing Brahmaputra Darshan Festival here today, said that from next year Haj flights will be introduced from Guwahati airport. This will come as a major relief for hundreds of Haj pilgrims who have to travel outside the region to take the flight to Mecca...

Guwahati, Jan. 25: The Cane and Bamboo Technology Centre in the Assam capital will collaborate with the Bangalore-based Indian Plywood Industries Research and Training Institute to chalk out a strategy for reviving the plywood industry in the Northeast using bamboo.

This was decided at a regional seminar on ?Revival of closed plywood industries in northeastern region using bamboo? in Calcutta. The seminar was organised by the Bangalore-based institute in collaboration with the Federation of Indian Plywood and Panel Industry and the West Bengal forest department.

Industry representatives said...

New Delhi, Jan. 24: The communications ministry is locked in a battle with the home and defence ministries over ?blanket? monitoring of mobile phone calls in sensitive areas, particularly the northeast.

The home ministry has informed the communications ministry that monitoring of wireless communication in sensitive areas is part of its civilian functions.

The defence ministry has indicated that it will permit deployment of WiLL (wireless in local loop) systems ? limited mobility service ? in the northeast if it is granted monitoring access. The home ministry does not object to this.

None of...

Guwahati, Jan. 23: The Union tourism ministry has identified four places in Assam and Meghalaya to set up tourism and cultural hubs which will project the cultural heritage of the area and link it up with places of tourism interest.

These four places are Kamakhya, Majuli Islands, Tawang and Shillong. The ministry has identified 36 hubs throughout the country to harmonise elements of tourism and culture.

The places will be equipped with documentation centres, handicraft emporiums and similar facilities with improved infrastructure.

Officials said the hubs would help promote unique cultural...

Guwahati, Jan. 22: The department for Development of North Eastern Region (Doner) has expressed its unhappiness over the drawing of funds by Central departments from the non-lapsable central pool of resources for funding several projects in the Northeast.

?This could have been acceptable if the resource pool had funds to play around with. But since we have limited funds, the logic and rationale of the department funding activities of other ministries/departments of government of India is not very clear and to our mind not desirable,? said a report prepared by Doner joint secretary J.P...

Imphal, January 21: India and Myanmar have decided to set up a Joint Trade Committee (JTC) between the two countries at the Ministerial level and the inaugural meeting of the JTC would take place very soon. This was indicated in a meeting between Mr U Win Aung, Foreign Minister of Myanmar and Shri Arun Shourie, Minister of Disinvestment and Commerce & Industry here today. The issues of bilateral trade, border trade and economic cooperation will be discussed in the inaugural meeting of the JTC for which Shri Shourie has been invited by Myanmar side. Shri Vinay Bansal, Additional Secretary...