evidence: Bamboo farmers and entrepreneurs in the Northeast got a flicker of hope when Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley allocated Rs. 1,290 crore in Budget 2018 for a restructured National Bamboo Mission (NMB) [...] Failure of NMBA - The Department of Science and Technology (DST) had in 2004 launched the National Mission on Bamboo Application (NMBA) with an outlay of Rs. 200 crore. [...] - An amount of Rs. 40 crore, refundable in instalments, was also provided to entrepreneurs as technology development assistance for partly procuring machinery and equipment - Contrary to its name, the NMBA neither developed any technology nor facilitated technology transfer for the assisted units - Bamboo entrepreneurs said the NMBA also failed to develop market linkages and virtually went off the radar - The Centre slashed duty on imported bamboo products from 30% to 10%.