Amidst the Incredible India@60 blitzkrieg in New York was an event that didn’t attract the attention it should have. The one-day ‘North East India Investment Conference’ of September 26 — aimed at putting the Northeast on the international investment map — was certainly unprecedented. For the first time in 60 years, the Indian government was signalling that it was ready to showcase a region marked by insurgencies, militarisation and alienation — and which it had always kept under wraps — as an investment destination and a paradise for tourism.

Hosted by the Ministry for the Development of the North East Region (DONER) and the Confederation of Indian Industry, the seriousness with which the event was staged was evident in the battery of VIPs in attendance: three chief ministers from the region, one deputy CM, the deputy chairman of the Planning Commission, two ministers and two GOI secretaries, a host of senior officials were all present to make the case that India’s Northeast was the new kid on the trade and investment block.

The New York conference was followed by a major Northeast trade and investment week in Bangkok earlier this month — Thailand has begun to show a great deal of interest in doing business in the region — and a three-day conference in Guwahati. Meanwhile, 10 per cent of Eleventh Plan Outlay has been earmarked for a region populated by 3.8 per cent of Indians, another sign that the Centre wants to make up for lost time. Increased government spending in the region is now sought to be augmented by an infusion of private capital, and for this purpose the Northeast is being sold to the world as a region rich in bio-diversity, with oil, gas, coal, water, limestone reserves, great tourist opportunities, and an educated human capital. Potential investors are being offered several attractive tax breaks and other concessions on a decadal basis. The new policy thrust, incidentally, is another reason why the Indian government is reluctant to come out strongly against the repressive junta in Myanmar to the general dismay of the international community and human rights activists.

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