Wednesday, June 24, 2026 (Nokinketer News): The Nagaland Connect 2026, a CSR Conclave organized by the Investment & Development Authority of Nagaland (IDAN), has secured commitments for CSR initiatives in Nagaland to the tune of more than ₹30 crores. 15 letters of interest and commitments were handed over to IDAN in the presence of Chief Minister, Dr. Neiphiu Rio and Deputy Chief Ministers, TR Zeliang and Y. Patton.

The conclave was themed “Forging Partnerships, Creating Impact” and was held at Jacaranda Hall, India Habitat Centre, New Delhi. The roundtable, organized by the Investment & Development Authority of Nagaland (IDAN) in collaboration with CSRBox, brought together more than 40 companies for an event designed to formalize Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) partnerships, with several Memoranda of Understanding, Letters of Intent and Statements of Commitment signed in the Chief Minister’s presence. Along with both Deputy Chief Ministers of Nagaland, other members of the Council of Ministers and Advisors to the state government were present at the event.

Conceiving this, Nagaland’s Chief Minister, Dr. Neiphiu Rio, called on India’s corporate sector to treat the Northeastern State as “a destination for opportunity” rather than aid.

In his keynote address, Chief Minister Rio described CSR as “an instrument of equity” rather than a compliance obligation and pressed corporate to look beyond conventional investment hubs.

“Nagaland today is not merely a destination for assistance; it is a destination for opportunity,” Rio said, pointing to the state’s young population, its position under India’s Act East Policy, and initiatives such as the Nagaki Incubation City as evidence of a state “positioning itself as a frontier of growth and enterprise”.

He listed education, livelihoods, healthcare, sports, environmental sustainability, women’s empowerment and youth development as the government’s priority areas and said the state had built a “single-window platform” through IDAN to facilitate, support and monitor CSR partnerships. “Today, I invite you not merely to invest in projects but to invest in people and possibilities,” he said, while closing his address.

Addressing the conclave, Abu Metha, Chairman of IDAN and Advisor to the Chief Minister of Nagaland, positioned Nagaland as a frontier state playing an important role in India’s growth story. He stated that despite several challenges, Nagaland had made significant contributions in the journey of India and in the nation-building process. He called upon the corporate fraternity to focus their CSR initiatives in the far-flung regions like Nagaland, where there were several development gaps, and highlighted the disproportionate CSR funding in Nagaland when compared with more developed states.

Emphasizing the immense potential for collaboration, he described Nagaland as “fertile ground for innovative partnerships that can transform communities while contributing to the broader vision of inclusive national development”.

Metha reiterated his call to the corporate sector to actively participate in the journey towards Viksit Bharat, underscoring that India’s aspiration to become a developed nation cannot be realized without investing in and empowering its frontier regions.

The program featured a context-setting session by CSRBOX, highlighting emerging trends and opportunities for impactful Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) partnerships. This was followed by the formal exchange of partnership commitments and collaborative agreements in the presence of the Chief Minister of Nagaland, marking a significant milestone in strengthening multi-stakeholder collaboration and advancing long-term, sustainable development initiatives for the state.

The event concluded with closing remarks by Vineet Kumar, IAS, Additional Secretary to the Government of Nagaland. The evening concluded with a networking dinner, providing an opportunity for meaningful engagement between corporate leaders, development partners, and government representatives.

The roundtable was structured to focus corporate engagement around six priority areas aligned with the state’s development agenda: health, nutrition, WASH and sanitation; education, livelihoods and skilling; rural development; sports and youth development; environment, biodiversity and climate resilience; and gender equality, inclusion and digital access, the last of which IDAN flagged as currently the most under-served.

IDAN, the state’s nodal agency for investment promotion and partnership management, positioned itself as a single point of contact for participating companies, offering project identification, regulatory facilitation, a dedicated liaison, partnership structuring, and ongoing monitoring and reporting.

The roundtable’s objectives included building a structured dialogue between corporates and the state government, identifying opportunities for multi-company and multi-sector convergence, exploring CSR co-investment alongside central and state government schemes, and developing a pipeline of investment-ready projects curated by IDAN.

*For press releases, notifications, articles, advertisements, etc., please contact 7005638013 (WhatsApp) or email us at nokinketer2010@gmail.com & sashimerenjamir@gmail.com.*