Information Age: North-East?

Being a student of Media and Communication internet for me was the best thing to have happened in the world as whenever there was an assignment to submit the best way was to surf the net, download the information and copy paste add my own touch and print!!!. Sounds easy right, it really is. Well there are lots of better ways to use the net. Words like 'Information Society', 'Information Age', and ‘Information Super Highway' make me feel very excited. The world has truly become a smaller place to live in as all the information we need is just a few words and a few clicks away from us. It’s like a river where information is flowing at a very tremendous rate and anybody who is sitting in any part of the world can access at his own convenience.

Information is one function which respects no geographical boundaries, social differences, economical barriers and which can bring in development at a very fast rate as it unifies all the fragmenting factors that exist in the society.

It is very sad to know that our states in the North East are still lacking behind in the race for communication compared to the other parts of the country. There is a common feeling amongst us that mixing and communicating with the people from other parts of the country may be a threat to our cultural identities and this reason has been used time and again to keep the region isolated from rest of the country. Thus the question arises. Is our culture the same as it was 200 years ago? The answer is a straight No. The culture has evolved, changed from time to time and will continue doing so because what remains unchanged cannot survive. Thus remaining isolated and underdeveloped in the name of protecting cultural identities cannot be accepted. The centre has most of the time been blamed for step motherly attitude, but have we put in our best efforts from inside? Nobody could have stopped us from making north-east a well known place but the truth is that somewhere we have seriously failed ourselves. The problem lies in the fact that in doing so we are seriously falling out of the race of the most prestigious thing of the future 'Information'. It is a well known fact that the future Super power will be the countries which will control the information rather than manufacturing and exports. North-east whose main potential I believe lies in tourism hasn't explored this industry to the maximum especially when the foreign tourist are concerned not because of militancy but because there lack of information to those people across the world. Poor connectivity, infrastructure are also reason but these will change as soon as tourist begin to pour in. For the tourist to first get attracted we need to provide them with 'INFORMATION'. There is no better way than using the internet as it has the broadest coverage and is very cost effective.

It is sad when a part of the country underperforms in an industry but it is an absolute misery when it doesn’t even after having the tremendous potential to do so. It is for those who motivate public opinion to make people understand that regionalism will not only isolate us but also put this region through a dark age.