The beginning of the North Eastern Regional Institute of Science and Technology was with a 1979 proposal by the Government of Arunachal Pradesh to establish a science and technology institute. A report prepared by a team of professors from the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad in 1981–82, was submitted to the North Eastern Council (NEC) which approved it, paving the way to the registering of the society for the institute on 11 January 1983. NEC set up a working group headed by Amitabha Bhattacharyya of Jadavpur University, which submitted a project report and a work plan in October 1983. The report was approved by the Ministry of Education in December that year, though final approval from the Ministry of Education was on a letter dated 12 September 1985.