People often describe the northeast India as Gateway to South East Asia. Only tenuously connected to the rest of India, the eight sisters – the state of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura- is a world apart from Indian plains. North-east India is a blend of eight perfect hidden jewels of India. The predominantly hilly terrain in all the states except Assam is host to an overwhelming proportion of tribal population ranging from 19.3 per cent in Assam to 94.5 per cent in Mizoram. The region has over 160 Scheduled Tribes and over 400 other sub-tribal communities and groups. It is predominantly rural with over 84 per cent of the population living in the countryside.

 

The average literacy rate of North East India is 74.48 per cent against 74.04 per cent of Indian literacy rate. Mizoram outshines with 91.33 per cent in total literacy rate, followed by Tripura with 87.22 per cent. North-East India is well blessed by nature and it lies at the centre of one of the world’s richest bio-geographic areas. North East India is economically and industrially backward in comparison with other region of the country despite of having huge untapped potentials. It has 53.66 per cent of the total hydro power potential of the country estimated at 57,370 MW, natural gas reserves of 190 billion cubic meters, coal reserves of over 900 million tones and oil reserves of over 500 million tones. Large mineral resources including limestone’s reserves of around 5,000 million tones and a forest cover which is 25 per cent of the country’s forest area. Phenomenal biodiversity- forest wealth, agro base, fruits and vegetables, herbs, aromatic plants, exotic flowers, other flora and fauna to be a future international trading hot spot towards more on South and Southeast Asian countries.

Thrust Areas for Development of North East India

The region has both economically and industrially backward areas despite of having huge potential for growth in road and communication, hydro power, tourism industry, micro small and medium enterprises, food processing industries, bamboo base industry and agro base industries. Following thrust areas have been identified where more attentions are required on priority basis for development of Northeast India:

Improvement of Road, Transport and Communication

Northeastern region of India have 8,480km of National Highways of which 2,836 km highest in Assam and lowest only 62km in Sikkim. On the other hand the region has 3,908km long railway network of which 2,497 km, 1,324 km and 87km of broad gauge, meter gauge and narrow gauge as on 1st April 2012. Poor connectivity with Airways and waterways with the rest of the country make the major hindrance in the growth and development of the region. To bring a sea change development of the region, improvement of road, transport and communication plays the pivotal role. Due to hilly terrain, most of the state capital connecting roads are curve and accident prone road. Often landslide and mudslide during rainy season, dust during dry season due to poor quality of road stretching throughout the region hamper the development of the region. The single lane road connectivity is still continuing after more than 60 years of India’s independence. 

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