The special category status was historically granted to certain regions in India which had been at a disadvantage with respect to other parts of the country. This concept was first introduced in 1969 during the Fifth Finance Commission and initially included Assam, Nagaland and Jammu & Kashmir. Since then, eight more states have been included namely, Arunachal Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Sikkim, Tripura, and Uttarakhand.