The NEC Plenary meet in Agartala will dwell on various development proposals to boost the overall socio-economic growth of the region. But among them all six sectors – National Palm Oil Mission and leveraging North East for increasing Palm Oil Acreage, 4G Saturation Project (State Dependencies, Financial Inclusion (Opening of Bank/IPPB Branch in Uncovered Villages, Unelectrified Villages, Road Connectivity and PM Electric Drive Revolution will have centre stage.
During the Thematic and Technical session held on Friday prior to the main meeting – which was chaied by MoS MDoNER Dr Sukanta Majumdar, secretary to the NEC Angshuman Dey said, the North-Eastern Region is pivotal in achieving Atmanirbharta in edible oil, as the scope for Oil Palm production spans across six NER states: Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, and Tripura, encompassing a vast potential area of 8.4 lakhs hectares, which is 38% of the national potential. As of now, more than 30 nurseries have been established in the region with the capacity of 30 lakh planting material.
He said, the NEC Plenary meetings provide an important platform to discuss the needs, challenges and possible solutions for the NER which have in many ways over the years shaped the policies and approaches towards NER by Union government as well as the State Governments of the region.
He mentioned that in the last NEC Plenary four areas of importance for NER was discussed namely-Investment Policies/Programmes in NER States, Industry 4.0 for NER, Strengthening of logistics in NER and Inter-regional trade/import substitution/export.
Dey, an IFS officer who had once served in Tripura, also dwelt on some of the measures taken in order to position NE region as a prime investment destination.
He informed that gathering that MDoNER would be organising the North East Investor Summit in Delhi around April, 2025 while a bipartite MoU between Ministry of DoNER and Invest India for strengthening Investment Promotion Agencies (IPAs) in the eight states of North East had been signed. Further, Union government had formulated New Industrial Development Scheme, UNNATI (Uttar PoorvaTransformative Industrialization Scheme), 2024 as a Central Sector Scheme for the development of Industries and generation of employment in the states of North East Region, he added.
The session was attended by Members of NEC, Chief Secretaries of State and senior officials of different ministries of the central government and officials of the state governments of the North Eastern states.
