IT News
Shillong, May 23,
An MoU between the North Eastern Council (NEC), Shillong and the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT), New Delhi was signed yesterday at North Eastern Council, Secretariat, Shillong as a part of the initiative to develop the NEC as the ‘state of the art’ resource centre. This collaboration would enable the setting up of the Centre for North Eastern Studies (CeNEST) at the IIFT Kolkata Campus in a partnership model between the NEC and IIFT. The Centre would facilitate the North Eastern States in policy making, strategic planning and effective implementation of various trade promotion schemes; undertake research and analysis on issues relating to international trade and business, capacity building and serve as a knowledge partner. This will help the States in exploiting the potentials of exports of the products from the Region and promote innovations in business. The newly developed website of (CeNEST) was also officially inaugurated and launched by Shri Ram Muivah, Secretary, NEC on the occasion.
The MoU was signed by Shri Ram Muivah, Secretary, NEC and Prof. K. Rangarajan on behalf of IIFT in the presence of officials from NEC and IIFT Kolkata.
Backgrounder:
The North Eastern Council is the agency for the economic and social development of the North Eastern Region which consists of the eight States of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura. The North Eastern Council was constituted in 1971 by an Act of Parliament. NEC has been instrumental in setting in motion a new economic endeavour aimed at removing the basic handicaps that stood in the way of normal development of the region and has ushered in an era of new hope in this backward area full of great potentialities. The main objective of the Council is to ensure the balanced and integrated economic development of the North Eastern parts of the country.
IIFT, Deemed to be University was established in 1963 as an autonomous body under the Ministry of Commerce & Industry. With the establishment of its Kolkata Campus in 2006, it has taken serious initiative to enhance export for the North Eastern States. IIFT has always maintained that when Act-East policy of Government of India is in vogue and given the cross border connectivity of the North Eastern states, there remains a huge potentiality for enhancing the regions trade based connectivity with South East Asia in particular and world as a whole.
