1. Sunrise States: Realizing the
growth potential of North-East
Team Details:
Institute of Law, Nirma University
Team Coordinator: Rupali Singh
Team Members: Diksha Singh, Seemantani Jain,
Sparsh Upadhyay, Pallavi Chattopadhyay

2. Introduction
• I dia s north east region (NER) is endowed with huge untapped natural resources and is
acknowledged as the eastern gate ay for the cou try s Look East Policy .
• The World Bank describes conditions in the region as a low-level equilibrium of poverty, non-
development, civil conflict and lack of faith in political leadership.
• However, in spite of being endowed with vast natural resources in terms of forests, biological
diversity, hydro-electricity, the region has remained largely underdeveloped. A key constraint
to the growth has been poor infrastructure and limited connectivity, both within the region
as well as with the rest of the country. The region, connected to the rest of India by a narrow
stretch of la d called the chicke s eck, eeds i frastructure to support a d e sure
significant investments and developmental aids.
• The report tries to give a low-down on the development of specific actions and policy
improvements towards corrective measures as follows:
• To e ha ce the regio s capacity through appropriate policy fra e ork ith a eye o the
ASEAN markets
• To highlight the need for infrastructure and capacity building measures and focus on policies
to create enabling environments for the export market
• To identify potential areas for future investment and product development based on regional
comparative advantages

3. Hydropower
• Exploitation of the large hydro potential in the NER could be used for exporting to the
power deficit northern and western regions of the country. The spill-over benefits for the
region will be the development of infrastructure such as roads, communications, and
electricity supply to remote hilly areas, resulting in better quality of life.
• The Brahmaputra-Barak river system drains a large catchment area, has the largest surface
water potential, and 30 percent of the hydropower potential (or 41.6 percent of the
principal hydro potential) of the country.
• “There are four defi its that o fro t the Northeast: a asi eeds defi it; a infrastructural
deficit; a resource deficit; and, most important, a two-way deficit of understanding with
the rest of the country which compounds the others. The Northeast has so far depended
exclusively on the Centre for development funding. A more rapid pace of the growth would
generate larger internal resour es…E e i the i ter ediate period, po er ge eratio
could become the cash-strapped Northeast’s largest sour e of resour e o ilizatio .
Power planning and implementation of proje ts to tap the regio ’s hydro/e ergy pote tial
must, therefore, be seen as an essential element of national power strategy.

4. Implementation of projects to tap
the regio ’s hydro/e ergy pote tial
• Hydropower development project given to NEEPCO (north
eastern electric power corporation) funded by the center.
• Experts appointed by NEEPCO to give vocational and
technical training for semi skilled and skilled construction
labour supply.
• Setting up plants at identified hydropower generation sites.
• Supply clean energy to not only north east states but
throughout India.

5. Trade with Bangladesh
• Strengthening economic ties with Bangladesh will be mutually beneficial.
Four north-eastern states - Tripura, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Assam - share a
1,880-km border with Bangladesh, and a large number of people reside just
along the border.
• Another argument is that importing goods from Bangladesh will be cheaper
than products which are brought in to the region from other parts of the
country as the cost of transportation will be minimal. This will implicitly
impact the lives of the people of the region as the cost of living will come
down subsequently.
• Their should be an open market like Border Haats without import-export
restrictions.
• Local agricultural and horticulture products like spices, dairy products
,handlooms , handicrafts etc can be traded which will bring revenues to the
local residents as they get a proper market to sell their products.

6. Implementation
• Border Markets promoted by the government. No tax
should be imposed.
• Commercialization through television, newspaper and
advertisement.
• Indian and Bangladeshi currency both accepted.
• Spices, Handicrafts, Handlooms, Dairy and Poultry
products, Rubber , Bamboo etc can be traded which
can improve the standard of living of the residents.

7. Tea Plantations
• A downturn in the tea industry, which began in 1999, has hit this
class of tea producers the hardest. This has been caused by
various factors, chiefly international competition, aggressive
marketing by soft drinks companies and high cost of production.
• European buyers have gone for Kenyan teas since their cost of
production is much lower and Kenyan growers have also shifted to
organic production much sooner than Indian growers.
• 25 per cent of the total tea produced in Assam and other
northeastern states is produced by small growers. Their
contribution to the total national tea production is 14 per cent.
Very few of these small growers are officially registered with the
Tea Board.

8. Various solutions of growing tea in
northeast India
• Conversion to organic production may seem highly
desirable for small growers.
• Organic certification by recognized agency requires a
mandatory waiting period of 3 years before the
certificate is given. Government should ensure that the
certificate should be provided within 6 months.
• Government should invest in the tea plantations rather
than private sectors having the monopoly over the
same.
• Skilled development of labour as lot of manpower is
required in tea plantations.

9. Enclavisation of Tourism
• E cla isatio of touris is co erti g la ds, la dscapes a d
common property into exclusive islands of leisure.
• This is to create demand for tourism and leisure products that are
fundamentally transforming the places people live in.
• Enclaves are safe investments, which would ensure a steady,
continuous and reliable flow of income from tourism through all
seasons.
• There should be marketing of the state as a tourist destination
particularly to national and international operators who largely
determine a tourist circuit.
• Availability of hotel rooms to attract tourists of all income classes.
• Well-organized tourism circuits and good transport infrastructure.
• Peaceful law and order situation and Administrative restrictions.

10. Natural
Resources
Economic
Potential
Human
Resource
Capital
Vocational
Educational
Possibilities
Industrial
Possibilities
Need to
improve
connectivity
Sparsely
populated
areas and low
urbanization
allows for
quickly
ramping up
infrastructure;
Unsatiated
demand for
telecom
services
Growth and
development
of
infrastructure
and telecom
connectivity
Vocational and
technical
education for
semi skilled
and skilled
construction
workers
Large scale
infrastructure
investments
and
opportunity for
several telecom
operators
Potential hydel
power from
riverine
resources
Sparsely
populated
areas allow for
new projects to
come up
without major
displacement
Bridge national
power demand
by supplying
clean energy
V.E and T.E for
semi skilled
and skilled
construction
labour supply
and for plant
operation and
maintenance
Setting up
hydro power
generation
across NER
creating
employment
and critical
infrastructure
base

11. Abundant and
naturally
growing tea
bushes
Diligent
plantation
labour with
knowledge of
harvesting and
post harvest
processes
Production of
world class tea,
employment
potential and
foreign
exchange
earner for
Indian
economy
Vocational and
technical
education for
plant
operation and
maintenance,
upkeep,
supervision
and tea
production
Best of class
productive and
well managed
tea industry
satisfying all
stakeholders
Favourable
climate and
physical
infrastructure
Educated and
English
speaking force
Supply of
educated
human capital
with good
communication
skills
Language
schools,
electricians and
estate
management
IT and ITeS,
knowledge
based
industries and
Real estate
Large tracts of
virgin forest
resources
Local
communities
dependent on
forests
Arrest
deforestation
and
degradation ;
developing
alternatives to
cultivation
Public
investment
outlays on
environmental
engineering,
creation of
knowledge
____

12. Thank you