‘First’ Amongst the Eight States of Northeast India | thenevibes.com

 ‘First’ Amongst the Eight States of Northeast India

Here’s a list of the ‘first’ amongst the eight states of the northeast India. Let’s take a look.

• The first digital archive of the northeast is established at Assam’s Jyoti Chitraban Film Studio to preserve films, music, special events, photographs and texts. The digital archive is known as Jyoti Chitraban Digital Archive, renamed from Jyoti Chitraban Music Archive. The first content to be archived was the oath taking ceremony of Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal. It is meant for all the artistes, producers, filmmakers and public.

• The ‘smart city’ dream project of the government of India may take some time to fully materialise. Meanwhile, a remote village in Assam became the first official ‘Smart Village’ in the northeast, that too without the support of government. With hundred per cent toilets, solar power and pure drinking water, Barsimaluguri, about 11 km from the Indo-Bhutan border, in Baksa district is a model smart village. The journey for this smart village project began on January 15, 2015 with the support of Nanda Talukdar Foundation. The village houses about 234 households of farmers, small traders and daily wage earners.

• Bomja village of Arunachal Pradesh is one of the richest villages in Asia. This village earned the ‘crorepati village’ tag after the Union Ministry of Defence released payments towards land acquisition in the area. A whopping amount of INR 40, 80, 38, 400 was released by the ministry as compensation for the land acquisition to as many as 31 households. The land was acquired by the Indian Army to install Key Location Plan Units of Tawang Garrison. The Bomja family with the highest compensation received INR 6.73 crore.

• Manipur is the first state in the northeast to have solar toilets. The solar toilets were installed at Ibudhou Marjing hill, Heingang. The founder of Ravikas Maitri, Ravi Senji, along with a dealer from the state set up the solar toilets on a trial basis. The solar panel connected to the toilets absorbs the heat to generate power, and also convert waste materials into manure. Manipur is the third state in India to have the solar toilet after Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.

• Maj Gen Konsam Himalay Singh from Manipur is northeast’s first Lieutenant General in the Army. An alumnus of the Sainik School in Goalpara, Assam, and the National Defence Academy, he was commissioned into 2 Rajput (Kali Chindi) in 1978 and commanded the 27 Rajput when it was based in Siachen. He was awarded the Ati Vishisht Sewa Medal in 2013.

• Guwahati railway station is the first railway station in the northeast to run completely on solar power. This unique solar power plant was first commissioned in April 2017. The interactive solar plant installed over the roof of the station is 700 KWp. This project was funded by Container Corporation of India Ltd. (CONCOR); it could save an estimated INR 67 lakh on electricity.

• Meghalaya is the first state in the northeast to have a smart classroom. The first smart classroom was launched at Pine Mount School as a part of the ‘Digital India Week’ observation. This project was undertaken by the state government in partnership with Microsoft India to effectively implement technology in education. It aims to create an environment where students and teachers can create, access, collaborate, and communicate using Microsoft technology.

• Aizawl FC of Mizoram is the first club from northeast to win India's premier domestic football tournament I-League title beating Kolkata giants Mohun Bagan. They won the I-League title in their second season only. They entered the final by drawing 1-1 with Shillong Lajong. Formed in 1984, Aizawl FC earned the entry in I-League in 2015–16.

• Lieutenant Shougrakpam Vijaya Devi from Manipur is the first woman sailor from the northeast. She was a part of all-women crew of INSV Tarini, which successfully completed the expedition ‘Navika Sagar Parikrama.’ This expedition was the first-ever attempt by an all-woman crew to circumnavigate the globe, covering more than 22,000 nautical miles. For 254 days, they sailed across three ‘Great Capes’ of the continents in the Southern Ocean – Africa's Cape of Good Hope, Australia's Cape Leeuwin, and South America's Cape Horn.

• Kikam Bhutia of Sikkim is the first woman from the northeast to be appointed as a member of the coaching staff of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). She is coaching Sikkim women’s cricket team. She completed her Level B coaching course at National Cricket Academy in 2010. She is the only Level B women’s coach in Northeast Zone. Earlier, she had been an intern coach for the Indian women’s national camp at National Cricket Academy, Bangalore in 2011 and intern coach for the East Zonal camp U-19 in 2015.

• Northeast India’s first 100-feet High Mast National Flag (HMNF) was installed at Agartala, in front of Ujjayanta Palace. The flag pole has been designed in sync with the geometry of Ujjayanta palace, the former royal palace of Tripura, and now northeast India’s biggest museum. State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and New Delhi-based Fast Track Engineering Company jointly installed the HMNF at a cost of INR 15.89 lakh.

• The first Kisan Call Centre in the northeast region was set up in Agartala in 2015. The call centre is run by a private enterprise and is funded by the Tripura government. The centre has experts from several departments including horticulture, agriculture, husbandry and fisheries. It is opened from 6 am to 10 pm on a regular basis. The Kisan Call Centre is an initiative of the Department of Agriculture and Cooperation. It provides assistance and expert advice to farmers regarding seed procurement, fertiliser, agro-metric, soil health, pesticides usage and marketing of the produces.

• Nagaland is the first amongst the eight states of northeast India to introduce Point of Sale (POS) facility for electricity bill payment. POS was launched at the Kohima electrical sub-division. This initiative further strengthened the Digital India campaign as the mode of payment is cashless transactions. It also saved the energy and time spent on counting and handling cash.

Hope this compilation adds more to your knowledge about our eight amazing states.