Nagaland Minister for Tourism and Higher Education Temjen Imna Along on February 28, 2026 urged engineering students and faculty at the National Institute of Technology (NIT), Nagaland to develop homegrown technological solutions to local infrastructure problems rather than rely on political fixes. Speaking at a two-day national symposium on the “Implementation of National Education Policy (NEP) 2020: Challenges and Opportunities in NE Region” in Chümoukedima, Along singled out the soil instability along the Dimapur–Kohima four‑lane (NH‑29) as a technical issue that demands scientific engineering intervention. “If we try to solve it (politically), we will only produce contractors. We need your cooperation… so that this road can be maintained properly,” he said, calling for a “Knowledge Bank” to prevent a copy‑paste approach in infrastructure development.
The symposium, which began on February 27, 2026, was organised in association with the NIT Teachers’ Forum (a unit of the Akhil Bhartiya Rashtriya Shaikshik Mahasangh) and the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE). NITs from Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Silchar, Manipur, Agartala and Mizoram co‑organised the event — the first time NITs across the Northeast partnered to discuss NEP 2020 implementation in the region.
Along linked education to national goals, urging a spirit of nationalism and self‑reliance to meet the Prime Minister’s Viksit Bharat 2047 vision. He said that if students from premier institutions influence national policy, then the people of NIT Nagaland “will be a great strength in nation‑building.”
On the sidelines, NIT Nagaland Director Dr A. Elayaperumal told reporters the institute has enacted major academic reforms to align with NEP 2020, marking its first significant curriculum revision in over a decade. “We have introduced some of the recent technology courses like Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, Python Programming, Data Analytics,” he said, noting these subjects are now mandatory for all students regardless of engineering branch. The curriculum also now includes humanities electives such as economics, and the institute plans a “Center for Appropriate Technology” to incorporate traditional knowledge systems.
Dr Elayaperumal said NIT Nagaland has risen from being unranked to the 100–150 band in the National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) over the past two years and has secured research funding exceeding Rs 15 crore in the last 18 months. He nonetheless acknowledged persistent challenges in attracting faculty to the state’s only NIT.
Running alongside the symposium, the NIT Nagaland Science Society staged its 8th Science Day Exhibition to mark National Science Day and CV Raman’s discovery of the Raman Effect. Dr Jyoti Prasad Borah, Associate Professor of Physics, said 572 students from 17 schools took part in exhibitions, debates, quizzes and poster competitions. “The objective of the society is to create awareness and scientific temperament,” he said, adding that outreach programmes target remote areas to spread scientific thinking beyond the laboratory.
Original Source: https://www.morungexpress.com/minister-along-pushes-for-homegrown-technology-to-drive-states-development
Category: Nagaland
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Publish Date: 2026-02-28 23:02:00
