Assessment of Socio-Economic Challenges Difficult hilly terrain, inaccessible areas, sparse population, inadequate physical infrastructure, poor financial resource base are the major challenges for development of the North Eastern Region (NER) of the country. Recognizing the challenges and the need for significant levels of investment in the region, there has been constant focus of the Government of India for development of the region through special programmes for social and physical Infrastructure development, human resource development, capacity building, etc. Development efforts of the States of the region are also being supplemented through liberal funding pattern of the sectoral developmental schemes and area specific development packages. This was stated by Minister of State or Development of North Eastern Region (Independent Charge) Dr. Jitendra Singh in Lok Sabha today in a written reply to a question by Shri Kanwar Singh Tanwar.
