NE economic boom Indias long-neglected North-East and its States have reason to be on cloud nine. They have been assured an economic boom in the next five years by the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission, Montek Singh Ahulwalia, and profitable trading with South-East Asia by the External Affairs Minister, Pranab Mukherjee. Both were speaking at a three-day conference at Guwahati last week on Indias Look East Policy and the challenges for sub-regional cooperation. The Eleventh Five Year Plan will allocate Rs 12,793 crore from the Central Government for development fo roads in the region. Besides Rs 9,500 crore to Rs 10,000 crore will be invested for improving rail connectivity. There are also proposals to provide rail heads to Meghalaya and Sikkim and airports to Kohima, Itanagar and Sikkim. Ahluwalia even suggested a Guwahati-based airline for operating within the region.
Equally promising was the first-ever North-East India Investment Opportunities Week held earlier in Bangkok at the initiative of Mani Shankar Aiyar, Union Minister for Development of North-East Region (DONER). At least eight MoUs were signed in to road construction and agriculture, in a conference attended by 280 entrepreneurs from India and 150 from Thailand. The Assam Tribne editorial ************* Workshop on impact of globalisation in NE GUWAHATI, Nov 4 A two-day regional workshop for journalists titled, Impact of Globalisation in Northeast Emerging Issues was organised by Press Institute of India (PII), New Delhi in Shillong recently. Besides a team of Guwahati-based journalists, media people from Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh also participated in the workshop. Various topics concerning the impact of globalisation in the north-eastern region were addressed by different speakers through question-and-answer sessions. The topics included, Look East Policy in general, Ecological Impacts of Development, Conflict Situation and Media Challenges, Head of Paradigm Shifts for the Development of the Region, Northeast in Globalisation and Role of Economics, Freedom and Gender Concerns in NE and Media Reporting of Economic Issues, a press release informed. The speakers were Prof Manoj Pant (JWU), Dr B Panda (NEHU), Neeraj Vagholikar (NGO, Kalpavriksha), Prof BKTiwari (NEHU), Suresh Kr. Nath (Cotton College), Falguni Rajkumar (Secretary, NEC), Subir Raj (The Business Standard), JK Bhuyan (Ch, Delhi), Akoijam Sunita (The Impal Free Press), TCA Srinivasa Raghavan (The Business Standard) and Dr H Srikant (NEHU). The workshop was inauguarated at NEHU Guest House on November 2 last by Prof P Tandon, Vice-Chancellor of NEHU. Earlier, OP Tandon of PII delivered the welcome address of the inaugural session, the release added.
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