North East India with its large untapped hydel power, mineral resources, virgin forests, sturdy people and vast water resources remain in the backyard of development, in the twenty-first century the crucial challenge facing North East India is how to achieve a balance between economy and ecology in order to ensure sustainable social and economic development preserving the basic cultural matrix, ethical values and equalitarian ethos. This calls for a truly democratic society that seeks to achieve economic efficiency and ecological harmony for the eradication of poverty and promotion of total human welfare. It is being increasingly realized that the pluralistic society has a significant role to play in counterbalancing the tendency to state absolutism.These are some of the crucial areas of social science research to which the papers included in this volume are directed. Research and analysis of population, environment, land, food and food security are issues of vital interest of the problem of qualitative demographic development. For this we need the formulation of the appropriate development paradigm of North East India. The papers included in this volume depict the emerging social milieu of North East India and suggest areas of research for the promotion of the welfare of the people in a strategically vital area, known as North East India.
