NEW DELHI, Oct 18: After two immensely successful years, the third edition of the North East Festival kicked off in a great style with main focus in Tourism, Look East and Act East Policy with various discussion sessions with top policymakers, in the capital city of India from October 16 to October 18 at Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA), Janpath, New Delhi, organised by the reputed socio-cultural trust, Trend MMS, in association with IGNCA and North East Today, said a press release.
It said, the festival is comprised with 25 food stalls, 60 artisans, 40 musical bands, 30 folk dances, various exhibitions of tribes, handloom, handicrafts and much more, and it was inaugurated by Arvind Kejriwal, Chief Minister of Delhi, and the guests of honour were Manish Sisodia, Deputy CM of Delhi and Kapil Mishra, Tourism Minister of Delhi.
The press release stated that the Chief Minister of Delhi said northeast as the most beautiful destination in India with most beautiful and nice people.
The session featured high level panelists such as Ram Madhav, National General Secretary, BJP, Ravi Capoor, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Commerce, Government of India, AM Singh, Joint Secretary, Ministry of DoNER, Government of India, Dr. Nani Gopal Mahanta, Professor, University of Gauhati and Shyamkanu Mahanta, Organiser-in-chief, North East Festival, and the session was moderated by well known journalist Kishalay Bhattacharjee, said the press release.
It said, Shyamkanu Mahanta stated about the need to promote north-east and build bridges with the rest of the country and also mentioned the need to create a positive perception about the region so as to make the investors see north-east as a viable option.
Meanwhile, Dr. Nani Gopal Mahanta said that northeastern region is landlocked, with less development and poor commerce. She further expressed that she believes in development of northeast on its own, as historically it had seamless connectivity with South East Asian and South Asian countries, and the only requirement is integration of road, rail and water transport and connection of people to people, said the press release.
It said, Ram Madhav expressed about the emotional disconnect between the people of northeast and the rest of the country, and stated that the government is committed to bridge the emotional disconnect. He said India’s development is not complete without the development of North East and Government of India is taking many steps for development of the region. Ram Madhav further said that he believes in clean and efficient governance for the development of the region, with priority on developing good relations with the neighbours to make northeast region as the biggest beneficiary.
The press release also stated that Ravi Capoor spoke about the pre-independence days, when northeast was one of the most prosperous regions with free flow of trade, commerce and people between the countries. He also said that NASSCOM figures tell about 20% of people working in the outsourcing industry from the northeastern states and improvement of internet and digital connectivity could make the region an IT hub of the country.
Moreover, AM Singh stated about believing in northeast and the opportunities by DoNER to facilitate investments in the region, and further stated about the requirement of coordinated effort from all the stakeholders to sort out all the issues related to trade and commerce in the region, said the press release.
