Centre has drawn a mega investment blueprint worth Rs 10,000 crore for the Northeastern Region in order to boost start-ups, BPOs, enhance towers, optic fibre, and IT connectivity. This aims to make NE states an IT hub at par with Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Pune. The decision finds sync with Centre’s promises for NERegion i.e. 'Digital North-East Vision 2022'.

As the Lok Sabha polls is expected to be held early next year, the government on Saturday unveiled this mega investment initiative for the north-eastern states. 

This huge investment will cover over 400 programmes exclusively focusing the North-Eastern states and make it a BPO hub. The Centre aims to create millions of new job opportunities for the youths in North-Eastern states.  

The programmes aim to give a boost to the telecom infrastructure in the region as some of these states share their border with China. It will entail investments of Rs 7,800 crore for enhancing towers, optic fibre and other connectivity initiatives.

Manufacturing of electronics will be accorded a major thrust. Prasad said that special incentives may be provided to the states that lead the initiatives in this area. As part of this programme, an electronics manufacturing cluster was inaugurated at Guwahati.

Setting up of BPOs and IT-enabled services will be accorded special status, Union Minister Ravishankar Prasad said, adding that the number of BPO seats provided for the region have been increased from 5,000 to over 10,000.