The Department of Science and Technology (DST) had in 2004 launched the National Mission on Bamboo Application (NMBA) with an outlay of ₹200 crore. In almost a decade since, the NMBA has spent ₹100 crore on building demo bamboo houses that hardly impacted lives across India’s bamboo belts. Worse, it became more distant and redundant for the Northeast, where much of bamboo grows,” Rajib Goswami, president of Bamboo Industries Association of India (BIAI), said. Huge marketRegional trade bodies say the Northeast is crucial for India to tap the estimated $10 billion market potential of bamboo. The eight North-eastern States – Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura – grow 67% of India’s bamboo and have 45% of global bamboo reserves.

Source: The Hindu May 06, 2018 19:41 UTC