India’s Act East Policy & Development of Northeastern Region of India

Abstract

After independence India followed the policy of protectionism and therefore in 1990s when USSR was disintegrated India became bound to adopt economic reforms in the country. As a result of it the then Indian Prime Minister Narasimha Rao adopted LPG (Liberalization, Privatization and Globalization) under the New Economic Policy. At that time India also adopted the Look East Policy (LEP) in order to increase economic engagement with its eastern neighbors and specially the ASEAN member countries. This LEP also aimed at containing China’s growing influence in India’s neighborhood. Under this policy Government of India regarded the northeastern region of India as the ‘gateway to the east Asia and beyond’. But for long time this policy could not bring any satisfactory result and therefore in 2014 when the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) under the leadership of Mr. Narendra Modi came to power renamed the earlier LEP into the Act East Policy (AEP) (Look East to Act East Policy, 2016). Since then many significant initiatives have been taken under the AEP for the development and security of India’s northeastern region which is a landlocked, underdeveloped and insurgent prone frontier of India. It is in this backdrop the present study is an attempt to study the evolution and objectives of India’s Act East Policy. The study also examines the role of India’s AEP in the development of India’s northeast.