<span style="color: #222222;">Home Minister Amit Shah has said that the North East is a very important region of the country and unless it is connected with the rest of India in every aspect, there will be no sense of unity. He said, the development of the North East as compared to rest of India is not possible if there is no peace and prosperity. Mr Shah was addressing the Annual Session and Annual General Meeting of the Indian Chamber of Commerce through video conferencing today. The theme of the address was – India@75 – Empowering North-East India.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> <br />'' The Union Home Minister said, since the Narendra Modi government came to power in 2014, it has taken forward the development of North East in a phased manner. He said, the North East is one of the 18 global biodiversity hotspots, 25 per cent of the country's forest area is in the region and about 30 per cent of the dense forest area is in the North East. Mr Shah said, in a way we can say that the North East acts as the lungs of India. He said, North East is also a heterogeneous region and there are more than 270 social groups and more than 185 dialects are spoken there.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> <br />'' The Home Minister said, before 2014, there was a huge gap between the rest of India and the North East and the first thing the Prime Minister did was to bridge this gap and focussed on the North East and began sending a Union Minister there every 15 days. He said, in the last seven years, the Prime Minister himself has visited the North East several times and has stayed overnight in the North East and now gradually the Northeast has become closer to the rest of the nation. </span><br />'' <br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Mr Shah said, there was a time when there were problems in the region like violence, extremism, disputes, floods, corruption and drugs,  but today the North East remains in the news for increasing connectivity, development, tourism, employment, electricity and forests as well as ending floods. He said, today the North East is ready to be a big contributor to the development of the country.</span><br />''