An IIM for the NortheastTHE UPA government’s first gift to the Northeast after it assumed office last month comes is in the form of an Indian Institute of Management (IIM). This announcement was made by union HRD minister Arjun Singh last week in Shillong when he held a meeting with chief ministers of the eight Northeastern states to review the education infrastructure in the region. Earlier, the Assam Accord of 1985 led to the establishment of an IIT in Guwahati. Tagging mineral water in ManipurALARMED at the spurious mineral water bottles flooding the market in the past few months, authorities in Manipur have ordered a ban on the sale of bottles that didn’t carry the BIS tag. The state health directorate has also asked the police to crack down on manufacturers who did not possess BIS certificates. If implemented, all six units in the state which meet about 50 per cent of the local consumption, will have to shut down. Meghalaya: friends no moreUNDER the Indo-Nepal Peace and Friendship Treaty of 1950, Nepalese citizens enjoy the right to live and work in India. But Meghalaya is now beginning to express its opposition to this provision. Paul Lyngdoh, the state sports minister who also heads the cabinet sub-committee on public grievances, says Nepalese citizens are dominating the labour force in Meghalaya, elbowing local people out. Meghalaya has already written to the union home ministry, asking for exemption from the Indo-Nepal Treaty. Nagaland in the fast four laneTHE four-lane highway project connecting Dimapur, the state’s economic hub, with capital Kohima in Nagaland, announced by former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in October last year, won’t be complete until 2009. A survey on a detailed feasibility report on the proposed Rs 400-crore four-lane highway has begun. The National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) is looking at two major hurdles—the soil condition of the existing highway and the problem of land acquisition. CII initiative to boost handicraft exportsTHE Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) has entered into an understanding with the Northeast Development Finance Corporation (NEDFi) to provide a much-needed boost to the export of handloom and handicraft products of the region in the coming decade. The initiative includes technology upgradation, standardisation of raw materials and development of financial infrastructure. The Northeast accounts for 80 per cent of the handicrafts output of India and employs over 22 per cent of the country’s artisans.
