Professional Documents
Culture Documents
IIT Kanpur
Amritanshu Mishra Devesh Prakash Vaibhav Patni Sumit Gupta Apoorva Goyal
Private sector investment is indispensible for the long term economic development of North East. Insurgencies have acted as an impediment to it. It is imperative to expand the scope of talks by including all major and minor concerned groups keeping in mind the past failure of talks due to non-inclusion of all representative groups. ( eg. Failure of agreements between Bodo Liberation Tigers and Govt. of India due to non inclusion of Bodo Liberation Front. Cultural centers along the lines of Indian Council for Cultural Relations(ICCR) need to be established across the North East for promoting hinterland Indian culture, the diverse North-Eastern cultures and shared common heritage across the region. Promotional programs such as cultural festivals and awareness campaigns could be organized under the ambit of such councils.
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North East connected to mainland India by a narrow stretch of Silliguri Corridor (22-44 km)
Traditional transportation routes rail, road and river linking Chittagong ports and Kolkata became inaccessible post-independence (Current distance btw Agartala and Kolkata port is 1700 km whereas earlier it was 325 km trough territory of Bangladesh.) Density of railway routes in North-East India (5.558 km/1000 sq.km.) is much less than Indian average of 19.47 km/1000 sq.km. Focus should be on transforming North East from Landlocked to Land-linked by development of alternate trade routes linking North East with potential markets o Special impetus needed to be given to multilateral projects like Asian Highway, Asian railway link projects, Lumding-Agartala railway o Alternate routes by bilateral agreements on the lines of Kaladan Multimodal Transit Transport facility should be envisaged and implemented o Strategically framed treaties with neighbouring countries to abet growth in the North East. Recent increase in agricultural produce have meant better opportunities for agriculturists and industrialists in North East e.g. ASEAN, BIMSTEC,SAARC o Enhancing digital connectivity of North-East with Mainland India and other countries eg Optical fiber cable Link b/w Morey in Manipur and Mandalay in Myanmar o Encouraging local editions of national dailies to increase participation of North East in mainstream discourse of the nation. o Need to increase cost-effective air connectivity btw North East and mainland India (currently only10 commercial airports) o The ATF(Aviation Turbine Fuel) could be made available at a cheaper rate to airlines in the North East which would provide incentive to airlines to increase their north east operations Urgent need to settle international border disputes with neighbouring countries for a stable secure ground condition to boost investor confidence. Traditional transportation routes such as rail, road and river linking Chittagong ports and Kolkata became inaccessible post-independence (Current distance btw Agartala and Kolkata port is 1700 km whereas earlier it was 325 km trough territory of Bangladesh.)
Non-inclusive growth
The region has over 160 Scheduled Tribes and over 400 other sub-tribal communities and groups. It is important that the road map to economic upliftment of the North East does not marginalize the indigenous people. It is important that Schedule V and VI of the constitution which provide for substantial degree of self-governance in districts where indigenous people are a majority and also a share in the royalties from minerals found on tribal land to local councils be enforced in right earnestness North-East has a very high potential for development of hydro-electric power. According to certain estimates North East accounts for about 43% of the hydro-electric potential in the country. According to reports memoranda of understanding has been signed with developers for 148 hydroelectric projects by the Government of Arunachal Pradesh Most of these dams are planned to be exclusively hydropower and not multi-purpose which will lead to great unevenness in potential gains and losses Project impact assessments have not paid due attention to the adverse impacts of such projects on downstream livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of people who depend on fisheries and subsistence agriculture. The influential 2000 World Commission on Dams(WCD) report had concluded that the record of the building has been one of perv asive and systematic failure to assess the range of potential negative impacts including the impact on downstream livelihood. It is necessary to adopt a participatory approach treating the affected people as active negotiating partners and not as passive victims or beneficiaries. The liberalisation of economy has opened new financing avenues for such projects bypassing the world bank focused financing approach . North East has seen rising protests against mega dam projects (Lower Subansiri project is a case in point) leading to a danger of new red-corridor in the north east along Arunachal-Assam border. Stress needs to be put on projects for the development of river basin region as a whole which would boost irrigation, fisheries development, riverine transportation, biodiversity preservation. Per capita power consumption in the North-Eastern states(413 kWh/year) is less than 50% of the national average(851 kWh/year) Special privileges could be given to the North-East states in terms of the percentage of the power generated committed free of cost to the state govt as royalty. The current norm is 12% committed by the NHPC. This figure could be renegotiated and pushed higher specially considering the high proportion of private players.
Closing Note
In the course of our research about North-East India for Manthan our views regarding the complexities of the problem as well as the potential of the region underwent a paradigm change. Although it is true that our peripheral sisters have now long been mired in veritable problems but it is high time that the soul of the region found utterance and renewed its tryst with destiny. For our nations tryst with destiny is incomplete unless the North -East plays its due part in it. To quote Barack Obama We can acknowledge that oppression will always be with us, and still strive for justice. We can admit the intractability of depravation, and still strive for dignity. Clear-eyed, we can understand that there will be war, and still strive for peace. We can do that for that is the story of human progress; that's the hope of all the world; and at this moment of challenge, that must be our work here on Earth.
Thank You !
Bibliography
1. Economic and Political Weekly 2. Reserve Bank of India 3. Patriots and Partisans by Ramchandra Guha 4. Economic Times 5. Pax Indica by Shashi Tharoor 6. Wikipedia 7. Planning Commission database 8. Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region 9. FAO Corporate document repository 10. NEDFi Databank