21st-century governance is data-intelligent governance with space technology enabling the government to observe in real time from the sky and track environmental, geographic or infrastructural developments that are beyond the reach of ground-based data systems. The North-Eastern Space Applications Centre (NESAC) plays the crucial role of enabling the northeastern states to leverage space technology, satellite communication application services, geospatial technology for accelerated growth in agriculture, health, education, weather services, disaster management and other areas of development. By presenting five key plans to make NESAC a key player in improving regional development, preparing for disasters, promoting climate-smart governance, encouraging scientific innovation, and using data for policymaking, Union Minister Jyotiraditya M. Scindia indicated a major change in NESAC's role to accelerate progress and better protect the region from disaster risks and climate change. The five initiatives mentioned by the DoNER minister at the 13th NESAC meeting in Shillong are: creating detailed maps of village resources; regularly checking on wetlands, forests, rivers, and landscapes; supporting geospatial and space-technology startups in the Northeast; developing a digital platform called NER-Shield to help with disaster resilience; and setting up a framework for tracking the Northeast's natural wealth and resources. Accessibility in remote and poorly connected villages in the region poses hurdles to ending development disparities. High-resolution village resource mapping using satellite images helps generate a detailed map of land, human footprints, natural resources, and the infrastructure of a village. These detailed maps enable the state government, central government and local self-governments - panchayats or village councils under autonomous councils - to set development goals and priorities with scientific precision and formulate plans and programmes. These maps can pinpoint which villages lack a primary healthcare centre; where new roads and bridges are needed to improve connectivity and transportation; where roads or embankments need repair; detect encroachment of a forest or wetland; track seasonal changes of water bodies; detect patches of forest cleared; show how afforestation or deforestation has led to loss or increase in forest cover, etc. Such micro-level information and real-time information provide vital input for local governments to prepare accurate and evidence-based village development plans. As data generated from field-based physical surveys is time-consuming, it is difficult to obtain real-time data from them. This situation creates gaps in the planning process because decisions are often based on outdated assumptions regarding the current status, relying on the latest available data, which is frequently old, instead of updated information. With climate change impact and extreme weather events increasing the disaster vulnerability of the region, monitoring the disaster risk for real-time intervention before they turn into a disaster is central to building a disaster-resilient Northeast. The NESAC has already developed a flood early warning system for the Brahmaputra basin, and its effective use for issuing timely alerts can significantly increase the flood resilience of the vulnerable communities and strengthen the ability of the basin states to anticipate floods and take prompt mitigation measures. The review of the Vision NESAC roadmap, therefore, was a timely exercise to realign its priorities to build the capacities of the states to address the problem of rising climate risks and ensure sustainable development. The roadmap envisages a phased transformation of the region through space-enabled governance and innovation, progressing from smart analytics to a smart region and ultimately to an autonomous ecosystem. The Union minister's pitch for hyper-local, multilingual last-mile alert systems integrated with telecom networks and his recommendation for expanding geospatial risk-monitoring tools for landslides and other natural hazards to strengthen disaster resilience is a pragmatic step towards anchoring space technology with the region's resilience needs. It's comforting to know that the NESAC meeting ended with a strong promise from NESAC, ISRO, DoNER, and the Northeastern States to use space technology and innovation to support inclusive, sustainable, and future-ready development in the region. Increasing awareness about NESAC activities can help communities trust space-based governance more and encourage both local people and the administration to use geospatial tools like the Global Positioning System, Geographic Information System, and remote sensing for planning local development, reporting disaster risks, and assisting with disaster management. The DoNER Ministry providing support to the NE states for strengthening geospatial education will help build the workforce needed to strengthen space-based governance. Higher education institutions across the region strengthening foundational and advanced-level courses on geospatial tools and their applications can equip more professionals and researchers to integrate these tools into everyday governance in all states. A focused shift to space technology, geospatial intelligence-based planning and robust participation of people in such smart governance and disaster management is an urgent necessity. Strong funding support from the central and state governments and logistical and administrative cooperation are crucial for NESAC to achieve its desired transformative role. The mandate for space-based governance and full-scale integration across departments needs a strong policy push.