Development / Northeast

Guwahati, May 30: Powerful cameras aboard Indian remote sensing satellites are zooming in on the Northeast to find out the wealth hidden in its bamboo grooves. It is for the first time that remote sensing satellites are being used to assess and quantify the bamboo resources of the seven states of the region. The idea is to help these states utilise the stock before the debilitating phenomenon of bamboo flowering occurs.

Bamboo flowering usually occurs once in every five decades. Two-thirds of the country’s growing stock of bamboo is in the Northeast. The raw stock is estimated to be worth Rs 5...

GUWAHATI, May 30 – India has 130 million tonne of bamboo resources that has been exploited only partially. Covering an area of ten million hectare, bamboo has a huge commercial potential. It is to translate this potential into reality that the Centre had set up the National Mission on Bamboo Applications (NMBA) under the Department of Science and Technology (DST). The Northeast produces two-thirds of the country’s total bamboo. Naturally, the NMBA has focused on this area. Since it was set up some two years ago, the Mission has initiated several steps to bridge the gap between the latest...

SHILLONG, May 29–The North Eastern Council (NEC) will not be ‘downgraded’, Union Minister for Tribal Affairs P R Kyndiah has assured.

“There was a move for down-grading the NEC in the recent past but I can now assure that the importance of the Council will never be undermined,” Kyndiah promised at a meeting with NEC officials in Shillong on Saturday. It may be mentioned here that the creation of a separate Central Department for the Development of the North Eastern Region (DoNER) by the then NDA regime at the Centre had given rise to misgivings in official quarters to the effect that the...

Silchar, May 27: In village after village in south Assam’s Cachar district, when people think of clean drinking water, they look at the skies. Not for rain-bearing clouds, but for the sun. A project modelled on a successful exercise implemented in countries like Columbia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Indonesia and Nigeria, is being experimented with gusto by volunteers of some NGOs in south Assam, Mizoram and Meghalaya.

Welcome to the future, when one can be guaranteed micro-biologically safe drinking water by just embarking on the innovative method of using solar radiation to kill pathogenic microbes...

AGARTALA, May 27 – Recognising the need to enhance border trade between India and Bangladesh, US Consul General in Kolkata George N Sibley has said a transit route through Bangladesh, connecting Tripura with Kolkata, should be worked out to explore “untapped resources” of the northeastern State, reports PTI.

The geography has brought Bangladesh and northeastern region of India closer. There is a huge potential for border trade between the two countries and "land-locked" Tripura can be connected with Kolkata with a transit route through Bangladesh, he told reporters yesterday. The Indian and...

GUWAHATI, May 27 – The markets of the North eastern region are flooded with spurious goods including building materials and a section of unscrupulous traders are duping the gullible customers even with fake ISI markings on the spurious goods.

The secretary of the Federation of Industries and Commerce of the North Eastern Region (FINER) Prasanta Goswami told The Assam Tribune that such spurious goods including building materials not only pose problems for the customers but also for the honest traders and manufacturers. He said that several members of the FINER have taken up the matter with the...

GUWAHATI, May 26 – It would be better to open up the North East to Bangladesh rather than try to link up the region with Myanmar, suggested French scholar Renaud Egreteau here today. Egreteau, who was speaking at a seminar in the city, felt that India should “think twice” before opening up to Myanmar.

Egreteau was invited by The Centre for Northeast India, South and Southeast Asia Studies (CENISEAS) of the Omeo Kumar Das Institute of Social Change and Development to speak on the topic: “India’s Northeast: Gateway or Boundary with Myanmar?” Egreteau is a doctoral candidate in Political Science...

NEW DELHI, May 26 – The controversy over the demand for greater Nagaland is sought to be settled with the United Progressive Alliance likely to endorse a demand for maintaining territorial integrity of the north eastern states, even as the NDA Government’s much-touted River Inter-linking Project faces an uncertain future. The UPA Government is all set to examine the techno-economic feasibility the project. But good news is in store for the north eastern states particularly the oil producing Assam, as due to pressure from the Left allies, a clause to review the crude royalty is under...

Kokrajhar, May 25: Given his fascination for “border” themes, filmmaker J.P. Datta may not need too much prodding to make a film on the travails of the residents of Darranga, a once thriving town on the Indo-Bhutan border in Assam. Since the Royal Bhutan Army’s offensive against militants, life has been unkind to several thousand families dependent on trade with the Bhutanese people for their livelihood.

Darranga is about 115 km from Nalbari town and part of the newly created Baska district, which is administered by the Bodoland Territorial Council. The population is a mix of Bodos, Nepalis...

GUWAHATI, May 25 – The Federation of Industries and Commerce of the North Eastern Region (FINER) today demanded that the office of the Department for Development of the North Eastern Region (DONER) should be shifted to the region. The FINER congratulated PR Kyndiah for assuming the charge of the DONER and hoped that as the seasoned political leader from Meghalaya is well versed with the problems of the region, he would be able to ensure development of this backward region of the country. The FINER called upon the Minister to take immediate steps to shift the office of the DONER to the NE...