The Look East Policy/Act East Policy-driven Development Model in Northeast India

Abstract

Under the Look East Policy (LEP)/Act East Policy (AEP), connectivity constructions, development of transport routes, and related industrial and trade infrastructures have sought to rescue the Indian North Eastern Region from the trap of a security paradox that was said to have limited availability of developmental opportunities in Northeast India. Adoption of the LEP came in the foreground of economic reforms in India in the early 1990s. The LEP identified Northeast India as throughway for trade expansion and joint economic growth in India–Southeast Asia region. For facilitating the objectives of expansion and growth, the LEP/AEP has sought to build a network of infrastructure for the sake of connectivity in the region. Due to this focus on infrastructure constructions, the LEP/AEP has advanced an economic development model that prioritizes creating physical infrastructures over social development. This article looks at the chartering of this development model and the contestations it faces from people in the region. For different social groups, the LEP/AEP has come to be seen as a developmental imposition that risks making the Northeast region a mere regional trade and logistics transit hub