Important Research & Development Institutions in Assam & North East India
OKD Institute of Social Change and Development
OMEO KUMAR DAS Institute of Social Change and Development is a vision turned reality for some of the most eminent academics of the entire Northeast. The Institute was established after a prolonged and strenuous effort of the academicians on March 30, 1989 under the joint initiative of the Government of Assam and the Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR), New Delhi. OKDISCD is registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860. Formerly known as the Institute for Social Change and Development, the Government of Assam renamed it after the first Education Minister of Assam, Omeo Kumar Das in 1995 as a mark of respect towards him on his birth centenary.
North East Institute of Science and Technology, Jorhat, Assam
North East Institute of Science and Technology, Jorhat, Assam, a constituent establishment of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), New Delhi, has been engaged in multidisciplinary R&D work relevant to the country in general and North Eastern Region in particular.
The CSIR- North East Institute of Science and Technology, formerly(RRL) , Jorhat was established in the year 1961 as one of the multidisciplinary laboratories of Council of Scientific & Industrial Research(CSIR) under its Chemical Science Group of laboratories. Its major thrust of R&D activities has been to develop indigeneous technologies by utilising the immense natural wealth of India.
North Eastern Space Applications Centre (NESAC)
The North Eastern Space Applications Centre (NESAC), a joint initiative of Department of Space (DOS) and the North Eastern Council (NEC) is a society registered under the Meghalaya Societies Registration Act, 1983. The Centre has provided more than 18 years of dedicated service to the eight states of North Eastern Region (NER) of India using space science and technology. The major objectives of the Centre are:
1) To provide an operational remote sensing and geographic information system aided natural resource information base to support activities on development / management of natural resources and infrastructure planning in the region.
2) To provide operational satellite communication applications services in the region in education, health care, disaster management support, and developmental communication.
3) To take up research in space and atmospheric science area and establish an instrumentation hub and networking with various academic institutions of NER.
4) To enable single window delivery of all possible space based support for disaster management.
5) To set up a regional level infrastructure for capacity building in the field of geospatial technology.
North East Centre For Technology Application and Reacherch
NECTAR is an autonomous society, set up under Department of Science & Technology, Government of India with its headquarter at Shillong, Meghalaya. The Centre will look at harnessing and leveraging niche frontier technologies available with central scientific departments and institutions. In order to assist the northeastern region, NECTAR will be ensuring applications of appropriate technologies for development in the areas of biodiversity concerns, watershed management, telemedicine, horticulture, infrastructure planning & development, planning and monitoring, and tele-schooling using cutting-edge MESHNET solutions, employment generation etc. through utilization of local products/resources and associated skill development. The Centre is sought to be designed in terms of:
- The Role of Solution Designer
- Being a Partnership Institution
- Technology Assistance to the State Government in North Eastern Region
- Assistance to State Government in Technology-Assisted Decision Support Systems Focus on Technology Reach Function
- Differentiated Approach from Technology Development Organizations
It is conducting programs:
- Technology Outreach and Services Scheme (TOSS)
- Bamboo Applications and Support Scheme
North Eastern Regional Institute of Water and Land Management ((NERIWALM), Tezpur
The North Eastern Regional Institute of Water and Land Management was established on 23rd December 1989 as a registered society under the aegis of North Eastern Council, Ministry of Home Affairs (now under Department of Development of North Eastern Region), Government of India. On 1st April,2012 an MoU of transfer was signed between MoWR, RD and GR and NEC and presently NERIWALM is under Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation, Govt. of India. It works towards generating local specific and problem oriented technologies through its different disciplinary divisions and caters the requirement of all the states of North Eastern Region namely, Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram, Mehgalaya, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura. Institute made commendable progress in various aspects of water resources management, crop-soil nutrient management, watershed management, mapping of water and land resources, command area development, irrigation and allied sectors. To outreach the people the institute organized dissemination programmes in the form of trainings, workshops and enrich knowledge by organizing seminars and consulting meetings. Since its inception the institute has grown from strength to strength and has gained confidence of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation. The institute desires to move ahead with more activities as guided by our knowledgeable mentors.
Indian Statistical Institute North-East Centre at Tezpur
The Indian Statistical Institute was founded by Professor P.C. Mahalanobis in Kolkata on 17th December, 1931. The institute gained the status of an Institution of National Importance by an act of the Indian Parliament in 1959. The North-East centre of the Institute at Tezpur was inaugurated on July 23, 2011 by Shri Pranab Mukherjee, Hon’ble Union Finance Minister and Chairman of the ISI council. This is the fourth centre of ISI, joining the existing centres at Delhi, Bangalore, and Chennai.
The idea of setting up of the North–East centre of the Institute was initiated by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, Govt. of India, in April, 2010. The proposal was placed before the ISI Council in June 2010 and accepted in principle. The exact location was to be decided in due course.
Subsequently, a team was sent to the North–Eastern states in order to find a suitable place for the proposed North-East Centre. The Council in its meeting held in September, 2010 considered the recommendation of the team and finally recommended to have the North-East Centre at Tezpur, Assam. The Council also constituted a committee for framing operational and academic plans for the North-East Centre of the Institute.
Thereafter, on the request of the Institute, the Government of Assam has allotted approximately 25 acres of land to the Institute at Punioni, Halleswar, Tezpur, Assam. The permanent campus is expected to come up at this premises in near future. The Indian Statistical Institute subsequently has a Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with Tezpur University for having the temporary North-East Centre of the Institute at the University premises. The temporary centre will function until the permanent campus is ready.
The centre successfully ran a Postgraduate Diploma programme in Statistical Methods with Applications for the academic years 2011-12 and 2012-13. From the academic year 2013-14, the centre is offering a new diploma programme, Post Graduate Diploma in Statistical Methods and Analytics, exclusively for domiciled North-East students. This programme is aimed at improving the employability of students from North-East. A prestigious multinational IT consultation and services company has agreed to directly recruit all students securing an aggregate of 60% or above in the programme in a single attempt. In addition to the regular courses, the centre conducts regular workshop on Official Statistics, Application of Statistics to Natural, Life and Environmental Sciences for persons engaged in Government/Academic Institutions in the North-East.
It is envisaged that the North-East States will be able to improve their Official Statistical System with help from this centre. The centre aims to create a pool of scientific personnel with strong Statistical background that will be helpful in many areas like Planning, Forecasting and Model Building, Data Analysis etc.
Indian Institute of Bank Management (IIBM) Guwahati
The Indian Institute of Bank Management (IIBM) Guwahati is an autonomous institution sponsored by RBI, NABARD, SBI, United Bank of India, UCO Bank, Allahabad Bank and Central Bank of India. IIBM has been mandated to meet the capacity building imperatives of Banks & Financial Institutions, especially from the North Eastern Region. The Governing Board of IIBM comprises top executives from the banking system like Chairman NABARD, MD & CEOs of banks and other experts and is Chaired by Deputy Governor, Reserve Bank of India.
Guwahati Branch of EIRC of ICAI
The Guwahati Branch of EIRC of ICAI was established on Sunday 25th December 1977. The first Managing Committee was formed under the Chairmanship of CA. (Late) Khagendra Chandra Das. Other members of the first Managing Committee were CA. K.N. Choudhary (Secretary), CA. (Late) Arunangshu Bhattacharjee (Treasurer), CA. Dipak Majumdar and CA. P.C. Medhi. Total membership strength of the branch in the year of establishment was 74. Today, the branch serves nearly 1050 members spread over a wide geographical area covering the entire state of Assam. The number of students registered under the Branch exceeds 7000. Being the premier branch in the North east, the Guwahati Branch also caters to members and students in the other six North Eastern States. There are presently three active study circles operating under the Branch, viz. Jorhat, Nagaon and Silchar.
