This year, AEDR celebrates its 25th anniversary, marking a quarter century since our humble beginnings in 1998 when we outlined a blueprint for the state of Nagaland. At that time, the state had just initiated its peace process after over three decades of insurgency, which had hindered economic development in this sensitive region of India's north-east frontier. Today, this area has made significant progress and is well-integrated into India's development process.
Since then, AEDR has completed numerous research projects for states and the central government, covering topics ranging from environmental issues to trade as a driver of growth and development. One of our greatest losses has been the untimely passing of our founder member, Prof. Alokesh Barua, a victim of the coronavirus pandemic. Prof. Barua, a renowned trade theorist and former professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University, led many of our early research initiatives in trade and environment. We pay homage to his memory and will continue his legacy through our future research.
In this new phase, we will build upon our previous work on trade, environment, and development issues. We have expanded our scope to welcome students for internships, leveraging our network of academics and industry experts. This will help establish institutional continuity as our research is carried forward by Ph.D. scholars in universities worldwide.
Our research advisory body comprises globally recognized academics in relevant fields. Our new initiative, 'Policy Forum,' will feature online discussions on critical national and international issues, providing a platform for debate and guidance on policy matters. We aim to distill key points of agreement and disagreement from these debates and disseminate them in online newsletters to policymakers.
AEDR is a non-profit organization driven by dedicated researchers from the fields of small business and academia. We hope to build on the foundation of our work over the last 25 years.