Kohima: Nagaland lags behind its Northeast neighbors in the Centre's FutureSkills PRIME programme. Data presented to the Lok Sabha on August 12 shows only 250 candidates enrolled and 118 certified in the state. Only Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh posted lower figures. The digital initiative, a collaboration between the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and NASSCOM, covers fields like Artificial Intelligence and Cyber Security. Nationally, more than 34 lakh candidates registered, yet Nagaland’s participation makes up just 2.5% of the total regional effort.
The state struggles to gain traction in other sectors. Official records show Nagaland sits near the bottom of Northeast tourism stats. It logged 132,853 total visitors in 2025. Between January and June 2026, those numbers dropped to 28,436. Despite government support for festivals like the Hornbill and the Autumn Fest, the region continues to see minimal growth.
Electric vehicle adoption mirrors this sluggish pace. Nagaland recorded only six EV sales between 2022 and 2024 under FAME-II, the lowest in the Northeast. Current figures show only 13 EVs supported under the PM E-DRIVE scheme as of July 2026. This stands against a national tally exceeding 2.6 million supported vehicles.
Administrative data also reveals high rates of job card removals. Between January 2021 and July 2026, officials deleted 73,029 cards. The bulk of these removals occurred recently: 33,916 in 2025 and 23,500 by July 2026. According to the Rural Development Ministry, "States and UTs are responsible for issuing, verifying, updating and deleting job cards" based on a January 2025 standard operating procedure. Demand for work under MGNREGS has dropped from 286,636 households in 2025-26 to 138,208 by mid-2026.
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