Development Institutions and Resources- North-east
Various efforts have been made to provide an integrated, holistic and regional perspective to development of the North-east. A hierarchy of organizations supported by the central and state governments as well as international organizations has implemented various projects some of which have already shown results whereas others are showing great promise. Some of the organizations, projects and resources that have been pooled in for the development of the North-east are:
It was set up in September 2001 to act as the nodal department of the Government of India to deal with matters pertaining to socio-economic development of the eight states of the Northeast.
According to the Allocation of Business Rules, the following subjects are dealt with by DONER:
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Matters related to the planning, execution and monitoring of developmental schemes and projects of North Eastern Region including those in the sectors of Power, Irrigation, Roads and Communications
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Road works financed in whole or in part by the Central Government in the North Eastern Region
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Planning of Roads and Inland Waterways Transport in the North Eastern Region
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Hill Area Development Programme (HADP) and Border Areas Development Programme (BADP) in North Eastern Region
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Non-lapsable Central Pool of Resources (NLCPR) for the North Eastern Region
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North Eastern Council (NEC)
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North Eastern Development Finance Institution (NEDFI)
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North Eastern Regional Agricultural Marketing Corporation Limited (NERAMAC)
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The Sikkim Mining Corporation Limited (SMC)
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North Eastern Handlooms and Handicrafts Development Corporation (NEHHDC)
It came into being by an Act of Parliament, the North Eastern Council Act, 1971, to act as advisory body in respect of socio-economic development and balanced development of the Northeastern areas. NEC started functioning in 1972.
Organization:
The members of NEC consist of the governors and chief Ministers of the eight member states, apart from the chairman and three members nominated by the President.
Functions:
NEC was constituted for performing the following functions:
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To discuss any matter in which some or all of the states represented in the council have common interest and advise the Central Government and the governments of the states concerned as to the action to be taken on any such matter, particularly with regard to
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any matter of common interest in the field of economic and social planning;
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any matter concerning inter-state transport and communications;
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any matter relating to power or flood-control projects of common interest.
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To formulate and forward proposals for securing the balanced development of the Northeastern areas particularly with regard to
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a unified and coordinated Regional Plan, which would be in addition to the State Plan, in regard to matters of common importance to that area;
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prioritizing projects and schemes included in the Regional Plan and recommend stages in which the Regional Plan may be implemented; and
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regarding location of the projects and schemes included in the Regional Plan to the Central Government for its consideration.
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Where a project or a scheme is intended to benefit two or more states, to recommend the manner in which such project or scheme may be executed/implemented and managed, the benefits there from may be shared, and the expenditure thereon may be incurred.
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To review, from time to time, the implementation of the projects and schemes included in the Regional Plan and recommend measures for effecting coordination among the governments of the states concerned in the matter of implementations.
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To review progress of expenditure and recommend to the Central Government the quantum of financial assistance to be given to the states entrusted with implementation of any project included in the Regional Plan.
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To recommend to the governments of the states concerned or to the Central Government the undertaking of necessary surveys and investigations of projects to facilitate inclusion of new projects in the Regional Plan for consideration.
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To review, from time to time, the measures taken by the states represented in the council for the maintenance of security and public order and recommend to the concerned state governments further measures necessary in this regard.
North Eastern Development Finance Corporation Ltd. (NEDFi) was incorporated under the Companies Act, 1956, on August 9, 1995 with its registered office at Guwahati , Assam , for the development of industries, infrastructure, animal husbandry, agri-horticulture plantation, medicinal plantation, sericulture plantation, aquaculture, poultry and dairy in the North Eastern states of India.
NEDFi has been promoted by All India Financial Institutions - Industrial Development Bank of India, ICICI Ltd., Industrial Finance Corporation of India, Small Industries Development Bank of India, Insurance Companies - Life Insurance Corporation of India, General Insurance Corporation and its subsidiaries, Investment Company - Unit Trust of India and Bank - State Bank of India.
Projects and Services provided by NEDFi:
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North East Equity Fund (NEEF)
The NEEF has been created to help first generation entrepreneurs who are short of equity and are unable to meet the conditions of banks/ financial institutions. Special focus is given on agricultural and horticultural activities and activities with local raw material.
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Project Finance Scheme
Objective: To provide long term finance for the establishment of new industrial, infrastructure, agri-horticulture, fishery and animal husbandry projects as well as expansion, diversification and modernization of existing ones.
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Micro Finance Scheme
The people in North East India are predominantly in the farming sector. For trading and production purposes, small borrowers still depend on the local moneylenders whose interest rates are normally very high. It becomes rather heavy on the borrowers who are poor, illiterate and do not understand the intricacies involved in formal lending. Therefore, they do not approach banks despite their needs.
With the help of Non Government Organization (NGOs), individuals can be organized under Self Help Groups (SHGs) for the purpose of on-lending from financial institutions. Also, linkages can be established for networking with these SHGs with the formal banking sector.
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Working Capital Term Loan
This scheme is aimed for those units currently facing problem due to lack of working capital support from commercial banks, but can be made viable with the infusion of fresh funds by way of one time core working capital assistance.
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Equipment Finance
For acquiring specific machinery/equipment
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Jute Enterprises Development Scheme (JEDS)
Assam is the largest producer of raw jute amongst the North Eastern states and has the 3rd largest crop in the country. More importantly, Assam produces some of the best quality raw jute in the country. More than half a million farmers are directly involved with this cash crop. More than 70% of the raw jute is sold outside the North East due to lack of adequate processing facilities in the region. Within the region itself, jute finds manifold uses, both for home consumption as well in the mill sector. There is plenty of jute, enough for the state and for exports.
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Women Enterprise Development Scheme (WEDS) Women have always played an important role in socio economic development of the society since ancient times. In the North East, they enjoy a special status in the society because of their entrepreneurial desire & ability, hard working nature and matrilineal society in some areas of the region Moreover, women of the region enjoy a comparatively higher status in society because of the liberal social outlook of the region. They contribute significantly to the development of the society.NEDFi, as a financial institution has been working for the economic upliftment of the women in the region by providing them training and financial assistance under Micro Finance Scheme (MF), North East Equity Fund Scheme (NEEF), Scheme for North East Handloom and Handicrafts (SNEHH), Jute Enterprises Development Scheme (JEDS) etc. Though women are engaged in various activities on their own in various areas yet financial assistance often remains a bottleneck for taking up new ventures or expansion of existing ventures.
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Scheme for North East Handloom and Handicrafts (SNEHH) This scheme from NEDFi that helps the manufacturers/designers/exporters of handloom and handicrafts products. NEDFi sees a great potential for Handloom and Handicrafts and would like the North East to take its rightful place on the commercial map for these products.
Services
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Central Subsidies
Government of India has entrusted NEDFi, in the budget 1998-99, to act as the nodal agency for disbursement of Central Subsidies for the North Eastern States viz. - Transport Subsidy, Capital Investment Subsidy and Working Capital Interest Subsidy.
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Techno Economic Development (Study) Fund
Government of India , Ministry of Home Affairs (North East Division) had during 1998-99 sanctioned a one-time grant of Rs.20 crore to NEDFi for undertaking techno-economic studies for industry and infrastructure best suited to the region. The Government felt the need for a new and synergic incentive package "in view of the continuing backwardness of North East Region". Accordingly, expert groups were constituted by Ministry of Industry and the Planning Commission, who held discussions and inter-departmental meetings and made various recommendations. A New Industrial Policy was, therefore, approved by the Government of India on 20 November, 1997 .
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Information Technology Park NEDFi’s IT park is located at the heart of Guwahati, the ancient city of Kamrupa, a city that finds mention in texts as old as the Mahabharata. The potential here is immense, the possibilities unlimited. Apart from large English-speaking population – a definite advantage in the IT industry – the North-east today is a huge reservoir of skilled and semi-skilled workers. NEDFi’s choosing Guwahati as the best possible site for its IT Park thus isn’t a coincidence, but a well-considered decision. Guwahati has a university, a number of colleges, a medical and dental college complex, an engineering college that produced about 30 computer professionals a year, a number of polytechnics and an elite IIT. The rest of the North-east is equipped, among others, with three central universities, four more engineering colleges, 17 polytechnics and 47 industrial institutes.
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NER Databank NEDFi and National Informatics Centre with assistance from North Eastern Council have created a regional resource database for the North Eastern Region (NER).
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NEDFi R&D Center NEDFi has established a Research and Development Center for Medicinal and Aromatic Plants located at at Khetri, Kamrup District , Assam .The genesis of NEDFi’s R & D Centre began in 2001 with the aim of transforming nature’s bounty of medicinal and aromatic plants to wealth in the hands of the masses. NEDFi has undertaken a promotional scheme for commercialization of some medicinal and aromatic plants (MAP) of economic importance.
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NEDFi HAAT Location: Ambari,
GuwahatiIt is a permanent exhibition place.
It is a public sector undertaking (PSU) under the administrative control of Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DONER). NEHHDC was set up in March 1977 with headquarters at Shillong. It has offices in Guwahati and New Delhi while it’s Purbashree Emporia are at New Delhi , Guwahati, Shillong, Kolkata, Bangalore , and Chennai. NEHHDC is responsible for promotion, development and marketing of handicrafts and handloom products of the Northeast.
NEHHDC has been incurring losses year after year. The main reasons for losses are high overheads on account of closure of the mechanical dye house in 1994, high rentals for emporia premises, relatively low sales vis-à-vis mounting overheads, financial constraints in procurement of sufficient quantities of products from the Northeast for sales and no matching fund in respect of the costs on its staff engaged in development work. A turnaround plan is now being worked out for NEHHDC so that it can be run profitably.
The North Eastern Region Community Resource Management Project (NERCORMP) It is funded by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). The overall objective of NERCORMP is to improve the livelihood of vulnerable groups in a sustainable manner through improved management of their resource base in a way that contributes to preservation and restoration of the environment.
The NERCORMP is looking at participatory, sustainable, and viable community based institutions that are expected to carry out a people driven mode of rural development. They have been concentrating on building up Community based Institutions (CBIs) at the grassroots level called - Natural Resources Management Groups (NaRM-Gs) and Self Help Groups (SHG).
One of the significant achievements through the creation of CBIs is the emergence of a bottoms-up planning approach by the village communities based and perceived on their felt needs
The overall objective of the North Eastern Region Community Resource Management Project for Upland Areas (NERCORMP) is to improve the livelihood of vulnerable groups in a sustainable manner through improved management of their resource base that would contribute to the preservation and restoration of the environment.
The project is trying to address the critical institutions constraint to development in the North East. It is focusing on introducing approaches which are:
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More responsive to communities perspectives on needs and priorities.
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Involve the communities more in decision making and planning.
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Make communities more responsible for management of their development programmes in order to generate a greater sense of ownership of development interventions.
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Build on traditional values and participation and utilize the strength of village institutions and sustainable use of the available resources.
The North Eastern Regional Agricultural Marketing Corporation Limited (NERAMAC)
It is a public sector undertaking (PSU) under the administrative control of the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DONER). NERAMAC was incorporated on March 31, 1982 . This organization is promoted by the North Eastern Council (NEC).
NERAMAC has a fruit juice concentration plant at Nalkata (Tripura), which aims at production and marketing low volume, high value products of the region, and a cashew processing unit at Agartala (Tripura), which harnesses the potentiality of cashew cultivation of the Northeast.
On the domestic front, NERAMAC markets the following:
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Fresh fruits/vegetables, cashew-nuts, maize, sesame seeds, other oil seeds, spices like ginger, black pepper
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Fruit products, in bulk and small packs
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Minor forest produce of the region
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Agro-horticultural inputs like fertilizers, pesticides, seeds, agricultural tools and equipment
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NERAMAC provides a refrigerated van to various units on hire.
The activities of NERAMAC in the field of exports are:
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Export of processed fruit products of SSI units of the region, thereby ensuring capacity utilization with commitment of marketing
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Export of agri-inputs like true potato seeds (TPS)
NERAMAC’s head office is located at Guwahati , Assam while its zonal offices are at Guwahati and Agartala.
Non-Lapsable Central Pool of Resources (NLCPR) In 1998, a Non-lapsable central pool of resources (NLCPR) was created by Government of India for infrastructure development in the North-east. The pool funds accrue from the unspent balance out of the mandatory provision o 10 per cent of Gross Budgetary Support made by the North-eastern Region in the budget of central Ministries.
The broad objective of the NLCPR scheme is to ensure speedy development by increasing financial inflow for economic and social infrastructure development. Funds from this can be released for both central and state schemes and projects.
Under the guidelines framed to administer the NLCPR,
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a committee has been set up headed by the Secretary, Ministry of DONER and
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has Joint Secretary level representation from Ministries of Finance and Home Affairs.
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Principal Advisor, Planning Commission and Financial Advisor to the Ministry of DONER are also members.
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Joint Secretaries in charge of NLCPR in the Ministry of DONER are members and
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One Joint Secretary is the Member Convener of the committee.
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Representatives of Union Ministries or Departments if their proposals are to be considered in a particular sitting for funding under the NLCPR are also invited.
The States submit a prioritized list of projects with a short write-up on each project. The NLCPR committee scrutinizes each of the projects and finally retains feasible ones for detailed examination. The Detailed Project Reports for these retained projects are then submitted by the respective states to the NLCPR committee for further evaluation. In this process consultation is also sought form Central Ministries and Departments. After reviewing all the proposals the committee then presents its recommendations to the Minister, DONER for approval.
After approval of the Minister, DONER the projects are sanctioned and funds are released in installments based on an implementation schedule by the Sate Government or Implementing agency. Funds are released subsequently after quarterly progress reports and photographs of the work executed so far and the Utilization Certificate of the earlier releases.
National Rural Health Mission 2005-2012 (NRHM)
The National Rural Health Mission (2005-12) seeks to provide effective healthcare to rural population throughout the country with special focus on 18 states, which have weak public health indicators and/or weak infrastructure. These 18 States are Arunachal Pradesh , Assam , Bihar , Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Jammu & Kashmir, Manipur, Mizoram, Meghalaya , Madhya Pradesh, Nagaland, Orissa, Rajasthan , Sikkim , Tripura , Uttaranchal and Uttar Pradesh.
All eight Ministers of the North-east came together at the launch of this mission for this region in Guwahati on 8 th November, 2005 . This project is especially significant in the North-east where terrorist activities have crippled basic healthcare infrastructure and services. Due to threats from insurgent groups healthcare professionals opt for postings out of the North-east. To improve the situation the Government has decided to provide not only additional funds but also increase the outlay for public health in the region. This Mission calls for setting up of Community Health Centers (CHCs) all over the region and they would be modernized and new medical, dental and nursing colleges would be established. The Union Health Ministry has appointed an officer of the rank of Joint Secretary to exclusively look into the healthcare scenario of the North-east. Out of the 290 crore rupees that have been allotted for health care in the budget of the current financial year, 61 crore rupees has already been released. Under the NRHM the Centre has already released 35.77 crore rupees, out of which 23.60 crore rupees is meant only for around 118 CHCs, 7.56 crore rupees for more than 700 sub-centers and 4.61 crore rupees for training paramedical staff.
The Indigenous Women's Resource Centre (IWRC) The Indigenous Women's Resource Centre (IWRC) was formally launched in July 2000. It comprises of women representatives from Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh , Assam , Mizoram and Sikkim . We do not as yet have any representatives from Tripura but are working on involving some women from there. We are a network of indigenous women who are keen to maximize the utilization of natural resources those have hitherto not been identified.
These resources come in the form of: (1) human (2) time (3) non-timber forest products (4) skills (5) agricultural products (6) horticultural products (7) livestock and (8) homestead products Most of these resources do not need to be imported from outside. However their value addition and marketing requires collaboration with market forces that are not readily available within the communities.
The IFAD project in selected areas of the northeast is looking at proper and better utilization of these available resources. The IWRC is engaged in sensitizing all projects managers and institutional development officers working in project areas to shift from the clichéd normative framework wherein women are mere figureheads represented at the Natural Resources Management (NARM) Groups by their husbands, into active participation by women in deciding how the resources can be best utilized for common benefit. This exercise is meant to remove the male-centric approach to development as also applied by the State, an approach that has kept women at the fringe of developmental processes. Funding for the project started in October / November 2000. Patricia Mukhim was nominated Director of the IWRC to give it a sense of direction. However, since she is a school teacher she had to take a sabbatical for two years (the duration of the project) from February 2001 to February 2003. Patricia formally joined the IWRC in February 2001 and is paid a monthly salary of 12,000 rupees.
Natural Resources, Water and the Environment Nexus for Development and Growth in North East India
