The Education Research and Development Foundation (ERDF) was established in 2005 with the objectives of Promoting Technological Education, Research, and Developing Leadership thereby producing required quality manpower to uplift the region and accelerating the Nation Building process. Only four years old, the Foundation has marched forward to start three new educational institutes which have attained the credit of being the first in their own spheres. The Foundation’s Bill for the first “University of Science and Technology” of the North East has also been passed by Govt. of Meghalaya. This University will start its academic session from 2010-2011 session. However, ERDF has not confined itself to education only, but spread its wings to R&D areas to expose its students to it.

While the major focus of the Foundation has been on providing higher and technical education to the students with the best facilities available in the country, the interests of the deprived sections have been kept uppermost in its priority list. As a result ERDF has chalked out a number of plans and programmes for providing various incentives to students belonging to BPL families, scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and specially minority communities. In short it has made education affordable and brought it within the reach of people for whom educating their children was always a distant dream.

As the percentage of literacy still leaves a lot of room for improvement, the facilities for modern and higher education is still not enough for all the students of the region eligible and aspiring for it, we have a long way to go. But here, I would like to take this opportunity to thank all who have made it possible for ERDF to make it this far. I can never thank enough the trustees, my faculty members, officials and well wishers for the selfless and dedicated support extended by them. I cannot stop myself from naming a few of them who have, with their dedication, become the very essence of ERDF Mrs. Anju Hazarika, Mr. Ferdous Ahmed Borbhuiya, Mr. Amit Choudhury, Mr. Bolen Haloi, Mr. Azmol Hussain Borbhuiya, Ms. Daisy Kalita, Mr. N. Laskar, Mrs. Rose Mahanta, Mrs. Namrata Sarma, Giasuddin Ahmed and many more. I also express my gratitude to the senior trustees Mr. N I Laskar and Mr. Abdul Malik who with their valuable guidance in streamlining the mission helped me to fulfill a part of the vision with which ERDF was constituted.

As the Foundation marches forward to expand its activities and take up greater challenges, I expect the same support and cooperation from all our well wishers. I also appeal to all like minded people in the society to come forward and join hands with us. Let us march together in this great mission of making our region stronger and better, thus contributing to making our motherland a country ahead of all others.