New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi, delivering his inaugural speech at the second edition of the Assam government’s flagship programme, Advantage Assam 2.0 Investment and Infrastructure Summit, in Guwahati this past February 25, had termed the Centre’s Uttar Poorva Transformative Industrialisation (Unnati) Scheme, especially designed to boost business in the Northeast region, as “a catalyst for industry, investment, and tourism in Assam and the Northeast.”
Modi, speaking at the summit, urged the business community to “capitalise on this opportunity and leverage Assam’s immense potential”.
The Modi government had unveiled Unnati in March, 2024. Just two days before he was to visit parts of the Northeast, the prime minister had announced that under a new industrial scheme, the Union cabinet had approved Rs 10,037 crore. It would inject a fresh thrust to industrialisation of the region. Within a decade’s time, the policy would help job creation, skill development and sustainability while attracting new business and investments to the region and nurture the existing ones.
However, going by his government’s latest data, the Unnati scheme, much like its first industrial policy for the region launched in 2017, seemed a non-starter.
Just weeks after the prime minister’s projection of the Unnati scheme as a game-changer in Guwahati, his government has given figures to parliament which show that it has not been able to cut much ice even after a year of its launch.
On March 18, replying to a written question asked by Congress MP from Assam, Pradyut Bordoloi, the department for promotion of industry and and internal trade under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, said, “No funds have been disbursed to the industrial units under the scheme as the registered units are yet to file claims.”
When asked how many industrial units have registered from across the region under the scheme, the department told the Lok Sabha, “Number of applications received is 279 of which 56 units have been granted registration under Unnati scheme”.
Union govt. launched UNNATI for the #NorthEast promising industrial incentives. #TodayInParliament my question on the scheme revealed that not even 300 applications had been received, even though half the stipulated period has elapsed!#ParliamentWithPradyut@INCAssam pic.twitter.com/9EUrZuyCSv
— Pradyut Bordoloi (@pradyutbordoloi) March 18, 2025
Though the department’s reply to parliament doesn’t give state-wise break-up of applications received in the last one year, the scheme’s website notes that Assam received the highest applications at 223 while, Manipur received the lowest at four.
While Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Nagaland and Tripura received 17, 16, 13 and 15 applications respectively after one year of the launch of the ambitious central scheme, Sikkim and Mizoram have so far received only seven and six applications respectively.
While the updated figure of applications at the website put the number of applications received from across the region till date at 301, the units registered under the scheme has remained the same at 56. The website too stated that no funds have been disbursed under the scheme thus far.
The Unnati scheme had replaced the Modi’s government’s North East Industrial Development Scheme (Neids), the industry policy for the region launched in 2017. There was much unease in the region then, particularly in Assam, as Neids had removed the special status (special category states) granted by the previous industrial policies of the Centre for the Northeast states.
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That status was being largely looked at as the much-needed incentive to attract investment to the state and the region. However, by removing that special status, the Modi government pitted lesser developed Assam and the rest of the Northeast against more developed states like Gujarat and pushed the region to compete for investments. The Advantage Assam summit is one of the outcomes of that ambitious outlook to attract big ticket investments.
Neids was brought as a replacement of the Manmohan Singh government’s North East Industrial Investment Promotion Policy (NEIIPP), formulated in 2007 for a ten-year period, of which the special status incentive was a part. NEIIPP was an extension of the first industrial policy brought by the Centre for the region by the United Front government in 1997.
In 2021, an important revelation was held up about the Modi government’s first industrial policy for the Northeast in the report of the department-related parliamentary standing committee on home affairs on action taken by the government on the recommendations/observations by the committee on demand grants (2020-21) of the Ministry of Development of North-Eastern Region (Doner). The report had stated that the Centre had allocated only Rs one crore under Neids in 2019-20.
However, as part of Neids in March 2017, the first Modi government had approved a financial outlay of Rs 3000 crore meant to be spent upto March 2020. Like for Unnati, Modi had then also claimed that Neids “shall promote industrialisation in the states of the Northeastern region and will boost employment and income generation.”
Since the Unnati scheme was brought in 2024 after Neids was a no-show, provisions were put in place to also retrospectively cover units registered under Neids.
Bordoloi asked the department whether any such benefits have been granted to any such units in the last one year under Unnati. The department categorically stated that “no benefits are being extended retrospectively. However, any unit that has availed benefit under Neids 2017 can apply under Unnati scheme as an expansion unit, based on notified eligibility criteria.”
“As on date, five units (which were also covered under Neids) have been granted registration under substantial expansion units category,” the department’s reply added.
Speaking to The Wire about the data received from the Centre on the Unnati scheme, Bordoloi, the MP from Assam’s Nagaon constituency, pointed at the efficacy of special status granted to the region, and more specifically to NEIIPP.
“That special status category granted through NEIIPP was withdrawn by the Modi government. That status was granted keeping certain factors in mind. Every prospective investor would shy away from setting up any manufacturing or service industry in the Northeast simply because they are economically not viable. The plan for bigger market outreach or procurement of raw materials to be used for any industry in the region would always impose additional overheads. Therefore, any worthwhile enterprise that would contribute to substantial income and employment generation in the Northeast had lost its perspective in [the] absence of such promotional incentives,” Bordoloi said.
He added: “After much touting, the Modi government came out with the Unnati scheme with the hyped narrative that this scheme would indeed be a panacea for the Northeast, a lot more lucrative for prospective investors in the region. Like any other ‘Modi’vised scheme, this scheme for the Northeast was also trumpeted as a game changer.”
The Nagaon MP further underlined that “even after the elapse of good one year of the announcements, the investors are obviously not forming a beeline to invest in the region. This is where the union government should give a hard look, and try and plug the lacunae.”
As per media reports, at the end of Advantage Assam Summit held in 2018, as many as 176 memoranda of understanding (MoU) with 176 companies were signed. Those MoUs were under the NEID which ended up as not a successful policy, leading Modi government to bring Unnati.
After the second edition of Advantage Assam, media reports have also highlighted large numbers of MoUs signed. Reports said the two-day summit concluded with investment proposals worth Rs 10,785 crore “signed across multiple sectors”.
