Mohammad Samir Hussain asked: Will the Look East Policy usher a strategic change in India's Northeast?

Namrata Goswami replies: The aim behind India's Look East policy, formulated in 1991, is to open up to Southeast Asia and benefit from the vibrancy and dynamism of its economies. The geographical niche for opening up to Southeast Asia is Northeast India. Given Northeast India's historical links with Southeast Asia, the Look East Policy aspires to leverage those connections to bring in the much needed investment from Southeast Asia to Northeast. Moreover, from the point of view of strategy, it has the potential of offering livelihood possibilities to the youth in the region, which could wean them away from ethnic violence. Challenges that continue to remain are weak infrastructure, insurgency, corruption and absence of local state level policies in the Northeast itself to lend support to the Centre's effort to activate the Look East Policy for optimal strategic effect.

For more on the subject, please refer to my following publication:

Namrata Goswami, “Looking ‘East’ Through India’s North East: Identifying Policy ‘Challenges’ and Outlining the ‘Responses’”, IDSA Occasional Paper No.2, 2009.

Posted on November 20, 2014