Shillong (Meghalaya), June 19: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman put the Northeast at the heart of India’s 2047 vision Friday, telling six Chief Ministers that Externally Aided Projects must now deliver speed, jobs, and lasting institutions, not just funding.
She opened a two-day conference in Shillong on leveraging EAPs, hosted by the Department of Economic Affairs. The room packed state leaders, global lenders, and policy hands ready to swap notes on what works and what stalls.
Chief Ministers Conrad K. Sangma of Meghalaya, Himanta Biswa Sarma of Assam, Lalduhoma of Mizoram, Neiphiu Rio of Nagaland, Prem Singh Tamang of Sikkim, and Manik Saha of Tripura sat in as Sitharaman laid out the stakes. World Bank, ADB, AIIB, IFAD, NDB, JICA, and NITI Aayog joined the table.
Sitharaman said EAPs are now a lifeline for the region’s roads, power, livelihoods, and social projects. The real test, she stressed, is execution. Better planning, tighter coordination, and faster delivery will decide whether finance turns into impact on the ground.
She flagged eight enablers to power the next phase. Leadership alignment between Delhi and state capitals can unlock outcomes. Institutions need sharper capacity to plan, implement, and monitor. The Northeast’s youth, entrepreneurs, and women leaders are the growth engine, and investing in them is non-negotiable.
Multilateral and bilateral funds should bring expertise and innovation, not just cash, she said. EAPs must be used to upgrade governance and service delivery. Private capital, she added, has huge room in tourism, logistics, agribusiness, food processing, renewable energy, digital services, manufacturing, and the orange economy.
Transport, digital, and power networks are already stitching the region closer to markets and to Southeast Asia under the Act East Policy. The Northeast’s forests, rivers, and culture, she said, give it a clear edge in eco-tourism, climate resilience, and green growth.
No district gets left behind, Sitharaman insisted. Development finance should build systems that keep working after projects end. Governments, communities, investors, academia, and civil society must pull together.
The conference dove into nuts and bolts. DEA, World Bank, ADB, and NITI Aayog mapped India’s EAP ecosystem. States showcased wins: Tripura’s urban and tourism push, Assam’s secondary roads upgrade, Manipur’s integrated water supply, and Mizoram’s FOCUS 2.0.
Friday’s agenda tackles implementation bottlenecks and reviews standout models like Meghalaya’s Community and Landscape Management Project, Assam’s tertiary healthcare upgrade, and Nagaland’s forest management drive.
“The future of the Northeast is not a story waiting to be written; it is a story that is already unfolding,” Sitharaman said. The goal now: turn connectivity into opportunity, investment into livelihoods, and partnerships into growth that reaches every village
