The EZCC has been functioning from 1985 and playing a significant role promote the numerous ethnic cultural centres and groups of excellence of the eastern parts of the India. And the objective of EZCC is projection and dissemination of eastern part of India's traditional culture.
Composition
The members of the EZCC are 1. Cultural Affairs Deptt. Govt. of Assam, 2. Director, Arts, Culture & Youth Affairs Deptt. Government of Bihar, 3. Director, Department of Art, Culture, Sports and Youth Affairs, Govt. of Jharkhand, 4. Commissioner, Govt. Manipur, 5. Director Culture, Govt. of Odisha, 6. OSD, Cultural Affairs & Heritage Deptt. Govt. Sikkim, 6. Secretary & Director, ICAT, Govt. of Tripura, 7. Joint Secretary & Ex-Officio, Director of Culture, Govt. West Bengal and Director and 8. Department of Art and Culture, ANDAMAN & NICOBAR ISLANDS Administration.
Schemes
There are various schemes sponsored by The Ministry of Culture, Government of India gives grants to the Zonal Cultural Centers. These schemes are National Cultural Exchange Programme, Theatre rejuvenation scheme, North East Programme, Guru Shishya Parampara and young talent search. To promote the culture in youth there are many competition organise by EZCC in following fields :
. is being performed to commemorate of 150th birth anniversary of Tagore. It was an Indo-Bangladesh joint celebration in 2011 in Kolkata. West Bengal's capital Kolkata is the largest city of this region. The states of Odisha and West Bengal share a lot cultural and linguistic characteristics with Bangladesh and with the state of Assam. Together with Bangladesh, West Bengal forms the ethno-linguistic region of Bengal, which was also a unified administrative region until 1947. Odissi dance is the oldest survive classical dance, Pattachitra the most influential ancient classical painting, classical Odishian unique ancient architectureKalinga architecture like Konark, Lingraja, lalitgiri etc. Odia is the only modern Indo-Aryan language accorded the status of a Classical Language in India, and Odissi music is claimed to be the classical Music among Karnatik and Hindustani Music.
The Cultural Zones of India are seven overlapping zones defined by the Ministry of Culture of the Government of India to promote and preserve the cultural heritage of various regions of India. ●South Zone Cultural Centre