1. Team Members
• Aanchal Jain
• Chiranjivi Chakraborty
• Hansa Mehrotra
• Sougat Misra
• Vaibhav Chandra

2. CONTENTS
ECONOMIC CHALLENGES
Agriculture
 Infrastructure
 Tourism
PROPOSED POLICIES, THEIR IMPACT AND IMPLEMENTATION MEASURES
 Indigenous farming practices for Rice Cultivation
 Facilitating Rural Credit and Back-end Infrastructure
 Promoting and forming Self-Help Groups (SHGs)
 Polymer-Bitumen Based Road Technology
 Double-Tunneling for the hills
 Creation of North-East Region Infrastructure Development Board (NERDB)
SOCIO-POLITICAL CHALLENGES
 Insurgency
 Illegal Migration

3. SOCIO-POLITICAL SOLUTIONS
 Insurgency – Short run and Long run
 Illegal Migration
 For One’s Demanding Separate Statehood
PROPOSITION OF SOCIO-POLITICAL POLICIES AND THEIR IMPACT
 For preventing ethnic violence
 Bringing contentment among the dissatisfied and neglected NER population
 More attention to disputed regions
 Better Law & Order, State Security and Drafting Conclusive Negotiations with Insurgents
 Amendment of the 6th schedule of the Indian Constitution
THE CYCLES OF POVERTY AND PROSPERITY
CONCLUSION
REFRENCES

4. • Lack of adoption and awareness of efficient
indigenous agricultural practices.
• Weak credit delivery system, poor transport
& market infrastructure (per Ha credit
disbursement is 1/5th of National Average.
• Small size of operational holdings ranging
from 0.6 Ha in Tripura to 1.42 Ha at all India
level.
• Large number of intermediaries and
defective marketing.
Agriculture
• NER is abundant with geological formation
and its terrain poses tremendous technical
problems for railways and roadways.
• Power generation is an another uphill task in
the hilly region.
• At 66 km per 100 km square area the road
length in the region is lower than the
country’s average.
• Quality of existing roads is unfit for heavy
transportation. Many of them are
unconnected to major district headquarters.
• Poor communication-virtually non-existent
forcing people to resort to conventional
sources.
Infrastructure
• Region lacks behind in tourism growth
because of its major issues like infrastructure,
insurgency etc.
Tourism
ECONOMIC CHALLENGES IMPEDING THE
POTENTIAL OF NER
4309
5758
4627
1781
2193
2051
4481
6211
47860
2000
4000
6000
8000
Net Sown
Area
Total
Cultivated
Area
Cultivated
Land
2008-09
2009-10
2010-11
Graph 1 : Cultivated Area Under North East
TARGET ACHIEVEMENT
NHDP-I (GQ and Others) 201 139.04
NHDP-II ( NS-EW & Others) 1785.55 1635.07
NHDP-III A 1102 794.19
NHDP V 77 107.6
TOTAL 3165.55 2675.9
• Completion of pending projects under NHDP-III regarding 2/4 laneing.
• Connectivity to all 88 districts headquarters towns of NER.
• Upgrade NH connecting State Capitals.
• Target for award in 2011-12 = 1991 Km, Target for completion in
2011-12 = 270 Km.
Table 1 : National Highway Development Projects
Source: www.indiaagristat.com

5. Propagating unique indigenous farming practices for
Rice Cultivation
• An inbuilt Water- harvesting & recycling system.
• Controls Soil Erosion and manages soil fertility.
• Allows scope for fish culture in the wet-rice
terraces, normally producing 50-60 Kg of fish .per
hectare
• Adds organic matter to the soil by recycling pig
and poultry droppings, rice husks, kitchen based,
etc every year.
• No cost of maintenance as fishes feed on
phytoplanktons.
ZABO FARMING RICE BASED FARMING
 Initiating a training programme.
 Recruiting personnel from regions where the practice is
prevalent. Example- Arunachal Pradesh (Apatanis), Phek
district of Nagaland (Chakhesangs)
 Imparting education to farmers.
 Airing the programme details through All India Radio,
Doordarshan, Panchayats, etc.
{1}
{2}
•Implementation of recently taken up schemes
regarding licensing of Post offices as banks.
• Greater accessibility of credit and formal banking.
• Higher rate of investment and saving.
Facilitating rural Credit and Back-
End Infrastructure
• The group is made up of women giving them
financial independence and social empowerment.
• Credit facility to fellow members from bank on a
non-collateral basis.
• Promotion to All India Radio, Doordarshan,
Panchayats, etc.
Promoting and forming Self-Help
groups
{3}
PROPOSING POLICIES, THEIR IMPACTS AND THEIR IMPLEMENTATION FOR TWO BASIC
ECONOMIC CHALLENGES OF AGRICULTURE AND INFRASTRUCTURE

6. • Loose surface soil of the North East Region
is appropriate for the technology to work at
its best.
• Consumes only 60% of existing soil and 40%
smaller aggregates as compared to 100%
aggregate usage in conventional crust
making method.
• It increases soil strength by 300%.
• Making use of waste plastic as it is a binding
element that can reduce cost by as much as
98%.(cost per km 4.5 lacs)*
• Current 12th plan package under
SARDP-NE** including Arunachal package is
Rs 37674 cr. for 7066 km.
Polymer-
Bitumen
based Road
Technology
Application
784
224
3317
58
28
468
139.5
1578
29
18
0
1000
2000
3000
4000
Machin
ery
Power
(Hours)
Bitumen
(MT)
Constr
uction
time
Using this Technology the Cost
comes down to
7066 *4.5 lacs
=
Rs.31797 lacs
Man
Power
(Man
days)
Aggre
gate
(cum)
a
As per conventional crust
As per IPPL’s suggested crust
Savings per Km. of Road Construction
Creation of North
East Region
Infrastructure
Development Board
• Combines Roadways and
Railways in a single Project.
• Cost efficient.
• Example – South Korea
etc. (Showed successful
uses of same tunneling
strategy).
• Centrally funded and
controlled.
• Responsible for providing
quick clearances,
implementation of project,
bifurcating charges to
respective states.
{4}
{5} {6}
Double tunneling
in Hills
Source: www.ippl.net.in

7. Demanding a
separate state
WITHIN Indian
Union
-KARBI-ANGLONG
-BODO
-DIMASA
-RABHA-HAJONG
-KOCH-RAJBONGSHIS
Demanding to
break AWAY
from the Indian
Union
1) NAGA 2)HNLC
3)ANVC 4)ULFA
5)TNV 6)PLA
7)PREPAK
 It has led to communal politics and ethnic
tensions.
 Hindering growth and development due to lack
of state and central co-operation.
 Not resolving the identity crisis.
INSURGENCY
 Insurgency discourages investment
resulting in lack of growth and
development.
 Lack of mobility of physical and
human resources.
 Lack of economical growth in
crucial field such as tourism sector,
etc.
ILLEGAL MIGRATION
 Insurgency discourages investment
resulting in lack of growth and
development.
 Lack of mobility of physical and
human resources.
 Lack of economical growth in
crucial field such as tourism sector,
etc.
SOCIO-POLITICAL CHALLENGES
The social fabric and polity of a society lays down the basic institutional foundation based on which we envisage to
develop, the following explores the very challenges to that foundation.

8. SOLUTIONS TO SOCIO-POLITICAL CHALLENGES
INSURGENCY
Short Run Long Run
• Develop State
Intelligence.
• Better law and
order
enforcement.
• Conclude the
current
negotiations
with the
insurgents.
• Education
health and
skills
development.
• Job
opportunities
for youth.
• Resolving
identity crisis.
ILLEGAL MIGRATION
 Start detecting and deporting the
illegal immigrants.
 Legalize work permit ranging over
short run for low skilled workers as
well.
 Maintain records such as UID such
that identification of migrants in
future becomes much easier.
FOR THE ONE’S DEMANDING A
SEPARATE STATE (within Indian
Union)
 Give them some degree of
liberalization by setting up
autonomy councils in the disputed
regions.
 Advance social opportunities in
these disputed regions.

9. For preventing ethnic
violence (which happened in
Assam last year, which left
77 DEAD and 4 Lacs
displaced)
Ratify the Land Border
Agreement.
Ensure a peaceful transfer
of 50 ,000 – 1,00,000
people involved.
Put a stop to illegal
migration of Bangladesh,
change in population
composition and resulting
violence.
Bringing contentment
among the dissatisfied and
neglected NER population
Ensure Investment in the
Human Capital of North
East.
Funding Health,
Sanitation, Education, etc.
Lead to higher utilization of
the potential of North East
people and inculcate a
general feeling of well -
being.
More attention to
disputed regions
Appoint
interlocutors
and move
towards a
conclusive
negotiation.
Providing liberal
political power to
disputed regions by
setting more
autonomic
institutions.
(1) (2) (3)
PROPOSING SOCIO-POLITICAL POLICIES WITH THEIR IMPACTS
Socio-Political solutions involves the adoption of the majority view with the intention of providing equal welfare to the minority in order to
build a cohesive society such is also the aim of these policy measures

10. Better Law and
Order, State
Security and
drafting
conclusive
negotiations
with Insurgents
Influx of tourists in the
region detained by the
insurgent.
Example – Garo Hills in
Meghalaya, Dimasa Hills
in Assam.
Leading to higher
employment
Utilization of
Infrastructure, markets,
resources, etc
Youth will not take
up arms against the
government and its
people
Further
participate in
local, state and
central
governments
levels
(4)
Contributing to higher state
revenue, employment
HIGHER
GDP
(5) Amendment in the 6th schedule
of the Indian Constitution
providing autonomy to regions
like KAAC, BTC, etc.
Ad-hoc village council at the lowest
administration level can elect its own
members. Thus, ensuring better
decentralized governance.
such that

11. Repression
of NER’s
Potential
Insurgency
Crippled
Infrastr-
ucture
Incompetent
Governance
Ethnic
Violence
Realization
of NER’s
Potential
Concerted
political effort
to weed out
Insurgency
Boosting
connect-
tivity
Efficient and
sustainable
Agriculture
Boosting
Infrastruc
-ture
VICIOUS CYCLE OF POVERTY VIRTUOUS CYCLE OF PROSPERITY
Our Presentation till now has dealt with the Economic and Socio-Political Challenges impeding
the growth potential of NER and looked in to ways to deal with them.
These two cycles, one dealing with the impediments to growth and other with the impetus to
the same, brings forth in simplicity our view of realizing the dream of a vibrant and flourishing
North-East Region

12.  The NER is a richly endowed region in terms of natural resources such as minerals, fertile land, river
bodies and a rich biodiversity.
 The region has been vastly crippled due to its historical baggage, political negligence and a widespread
insurgent and separatists’ movement.
 Once the transit between South Asia and Mainland India, North-East needs to find its erstwhile glory
again through the active participation of its polity and people.
 Agriculture which is the stepping stone in economically empowering the rural folks of the regions needs
to incorporate indigenous knowledge systems from across the region such as Zabo Farming system of
Nagaland and Rice farming systems of the Apatanis of Arunachal to name a few. The branding of these
methods as being "low productive," "primitive," and "old" can no longer be justified and thereby
entertained.
 The Central Government has given a major push to the region in the past decade and a half as a result of
its ‘Look East’ foreign policy providing assistance in terms of funds for infrastructural development, human
capital and overall development of the region to bring it on par with the rest of the country.
 Factors such as Insurgency, crumbling Infrastructure, and impotent governance which have repressed the
regions ability to grow and develop can be weeded out through strong political will, implementation of
infrastructural projects, and development of the rural economy.
 The people and the region as such have been alienated from the rest of the country and it is high time
that the contribution, both current and potential, of the region in the country’s development be
appreciated.
 The recipe for the development of NER needs to be prepared from the point of view of the region rather
than being externally enforced, policy measures have to use the local knowledge base, ideas and innovate
upon them to provide a sustainable roadmap for the inclusive development of the North-East Region.
CONCLUSION

13. REFERENCES
Agriculture:
 Indigenous agricultural systems of Northeast India by Lalsiemlien Pulamte
 www.Indiaagristat.com
Infrastructure:
 Journal of Social and Development Sciences Vol. 2, No. 4, pp. 162-180, Oct 2011 (ISSN 2221-
1152), Infrastructure and Regional Disparity A Case Of North Eastern Region of India by Komol
Singha, Institute for Social and Economic Change, Bangalore, India.
 Performance Evaluation of Polymer Coated Bitumen Built Roads by Central Pollution Control
Board, August, 2008
Socio-Political:
 14th Home Secretary Level talks between India and Bangladesh, Press Information Bureau
http://pib.nic.in/newsite/erelease.aspx?relid=97344
 Price Waterhouse Coopers NER Summit 2013
http://www.pwc.in/en_IN/in/assets/pdfs/publications/2013/north-east_summit-2013.pdf
 Indo-Bangladesh Enclaves (LBA)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-Bangladesh_enclaves
 Bangladesh-India Land Border Issues and Management Brig Gen. Abdus Salam Chowdhury,
National Defence College

14.  Insurgency of NER (Secondary Source)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insurgency_in_Northeast_India
 Historical Signing of the Land Border Agreement: September, 2011 by NDTV
http://www.ndtv.com/article/india/india-bangladesh-sign-historic-boundary-agreement-teestatreaty-on-hold-
131829
Note on the figure of road construction:
*According to the Central Pollution Control Board study of the August, 2008 cited in the
reference the cost of constructing 6.90 KM of polymer coated bitumen based roads in the Nilgiri
Hills came to about 34.250 lacs. Therefore, the per km cost of constructing the road comes down
to Rs. 4.5 lacs.
** SARDP-NE : Special Accelerated Road Development Program – North East