Assam: ICSSR-sponsored national seminar held at Dr BKB College, Nagaon

NAGAON: The Department of Economics of Dr BKB College, Puranigudam, organized an ICSSR-sponsored national seminar on “Emerging Policy Issues with Special Reference to Development of the North-Eastern Region of India” recently at the college premises.

The seminar was initiated with the inaugural programme and followed by three technical sessions and the valedictory session.

Retired professor Madhurjya Prasad Bezbaruah from Gauhati University, Professor Joydeep Baruah from Krishna Kanta Handique State Open University, Guwahati and Dr Binoy Goswami from South Asian University from New Delhi participated in the seminar as resource persons and over fifty participants from different parts of the nation like Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Tripura, West Bengal, Bihar and Assam took part in the programme.

The inaugural programme was started with lighting of earthen lamp by Pulin Hazarika, president of the governing body of the college. The welcome address was delivered by Dr Nripen Ch Das, principal of Dr BKB College. Professor M P Bezbaruah delivered the keynote of the seminar and enlightened the audience on ‘policy challenges for socio-economic advancement of Northeast India”. Professor Joydeep Baruah delivered a speech on poverty, inequality and social sector policies while Dr Binoy Goswami delivered his speech on “agriculture-led growth for a relatively underdeveloped economy: scope, constraints and strategies”.

During the three simultaneous technical sessions, over fifty participants from different parts of the country presented their research papers and shared their views on different development issues of the North Eastern States. During the valedictory session, certificates were distributed among the participants of the seminar.

Since after independence, Union as well as the State governments of India initiated various strategies or policies to gear up the process of development in India as well as North Eastern States, like introduction of five-year plans, green revolution, establishment of North Eastern Council, implementation of LPG policy, etc. But North-Eastern region has been still standing as a marginal player in the field of development, like – adoption of new agricultural strategy, industrial and infrastructural development, etc with its geographical isolation, proneness to natural calamities, unutilized or underutilized natural resources, sensitive borders, disturbed law and order conditions, poor transport and communication facilities, ethnic and structural diversity. The participation of resource persons, academicians, faculties of different educational institutes, research scholars and students in the proceedings of the seminar offered much fruitful insight into the issues regarding challenges and strategic approaches and new innovations for development of the entire region.

Also Read: Assam: Meet on traffic congestion held in Tezpur town

Also Watch: