The history of the Northeast, an area whose past is little known in the rest of the country, will now find a place in NCERT textbooks, Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh has said.

"There can be no history of India without the history of the Northeast. The glorious chapters of the region's history will be incorporated in NCERT text books," Singh said in Guwahati on Wednesday.

A committee of historians will be constituted for deciding the material to be included in the books, he said.

The All Assam Students Union and the banned United Liberation Front of Asom have been protesting against the absence of the region's history from books, particularly NCERT ones.

The AASU said that the omission gave a feeling of alienation among the people and the Northeast's glorious role in the freedom struggle remained unknown outside.

The outlawed ULFA has repeatedly claimed that India "has no right to claim the N-E as its own when its history is not considered to be a part of the country's history".

Earlier, at Shillong, Singh said an Indian Institute of Management would be set up in the Northeast mainly to cater to the students of the region.