Four states of the North-eastern region – Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya and Mizoram – had an occasion to celebrate in the past couple of days. It was on January 20, 1972 that Arunachal Pradesh came into existence as a Union Territory by this name after shedding its earlier identity as North-East Frontier Agency, or just NEFA. It was on January 21, 1972 on the other hand that two former Union Territories – Manipur and Tripura – were upgraded to full-fledged states of the Indian Union. Both, it may be recalled, were princely states during the colonial era, and had joined the Indian Union on October 15 1949. Mizoram on the other hand was a district of Assam by the name of Lushai Hills, and was first made a Union Territory in 1972, and then a full-fledged State in 1987. The story of Meghalaya is different. It was first declared as an Autonomous State within Assam on April 2, 1971, comprising the then United Khasi & Jaintia Hills district and Garo Hills district, and then declared as a full-fledged State on January 21, 1972. (Some people in Assam have a wrong idea that the whole of present-day North-east was once upon a time Assam. This is untrue, as Manipur and Tripura, as has been mentioned, were independent princely states.) While the people of the four states should be heartily congratulated on the occasion of this historic moment of their respective states, it is probably also an occasion to take stock of the various changes and developments these states have witnessed or recorded in the past five decades. It would have been ideal had the respective state governments had made a list of the changes, developments and achievements of their states and publicized it, so that the people were made aware of the same. The basic achievements and developments can be best measured by way of taking stock of the various human development indicators, like life expectancy at birth, maternal mortality, infant mortality, number of educational and healthcare institutions, employment and livelihood opportunities, agricultural production, increase in road-length, electrification and water supply in villages, per capita income, literacy (including female literacy), to name a few. Equally important is the number of persons from each of these states making it to the all-India civil services.