The administration in Arunachal Pradesh, in any real sense, is a creation of the last 25 to 30 years. This, however, does not mean that the British had no contact with, or had conducted no exploration in, the area during their regime.
After independence, the hill people of NEFA had the same opportunities available to them as to the rest of the country inn the field of education, health services and general development. Steps were initiated to shift the various district headquarters from the southern periphery of the region to the more central regions within the hills, so that the administration could remain in closer physical contact with the people.
The most significant difference between Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh is that whereas Meghalaya, when born, was a full-fledged state after passing through the usual administrative processes of century and a half. Arunachal Pradesh had emerged as a union territory within the sort space 30 years and a state inn 1987.
The economy of the two areas is basically not much different. It is essentially an agricultural economy and, until recently, the staple crop. Both areas have rich possibilities of horticultural development and efforts are being made to set up large and small –scale units for canning fruit products. While geological investigations in Arunachal Pradesh are still progress, investigations in Meghalaya have revealed extensive deposits of high –grade limestone and coal.