Indias Look East or “Act East” policy - 1 Like French, German language learning institutes, NE should/must have Tai-Ahom or Tai language learning institutes in NE to benefit people of NE financially from this Look East or “Act East” policy, and for Tai-Ahom people - of course for Tai-Ahom people themselves. Ever since the Sino-Indian War of 1962, China and India have been strategic competitors in South and East Asia. Aug. 21, 2006 India and China Compete for Burmas Resources worldpoliticsreview/articles/129/india-and-china-compete-for-burmas-resources 28 March 2008 Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies - Assam in Indias Look East Policy ipcs.org/article/southeast-asia/assam-in-indias-look-east-policy-2527.html September 12, 2010 India’s Look East Policy: Prospects And Challenges For North-East India manipuronline/research-papers/india%E2%80%99s-look-east-policy-prospects-and-challenges-for-north-east-india/2010/09/12 September 18, 2013 Institue of Defence Studies and Analysis - Roundtable on Northeast’s Role in India’s Look East Policy idsa.in/event/NortheastsRoleinIndiasLookEastPolicy September 18, 2013 Look East Policy can boost the agri-horti sector assamtimes.org/node/9226 August 29, 2014 03:39 Workshop to discuss Manipur in India’s Look East Policy kanglaonline/2014/08/workshop-to-discuss-manipur-in-indias-look-east-policy/ November 12, 2014 ‘Look East’ has become ‘Act East Policy’, says PM Modi at ASEAN indianexpress/article/india/india-others/look-east-has-become-act-east-policy-pm-modi-at-asean/ India rediscovers East Asia atimes/atimes/South_Asia/IJ31Df01.html atimes/reports/CB21Ai01.html#top5 THE NORTH -EAST STEERING INDIAS LOOK-EAST POLICY globalindiafoundation.org/lookeast.html The Look East Policy online.assam.gov.in/web/guest/assamontherise?webContentId=93805 Indias Look East Policy geography.about/od/indiamaps/fl/Indias-Look-East-Policy.htm The opportunities that economic integration with its transnational neighbours could open up for Northeast India are enormous. The regions difficulties as a result of the loss of connectivity and market access following the partition of 1947 are well known. But there is also an older story of colonial geopolitics that cut the region off from its neighbourhood across the eastern and northern borders. 19th century British colonial decisions to draw lines between the hills and the plains, to put barriers on trade between Bhutan and Assam, and to treat Burma as a buffer against French Indochina and China severed the region from its traditional trade routes – the southern trails of the Silk Road. While colonial rulers built railways and roads mostly to take tea, coal, oil and other resources out of Assam, the disruption of old trade routes remained colonialisms most enduring negative legacy. After a century and half the opportunity has now arisen to undo the effects of colonial geopolitics. However, there are serious hurdles to the Look East policy developing its Northeast Indian thrust. Indeed there is a growing sense in Northeast India that there may be more rhetoric than substance to the talk of the region becoming Indias gateway to Southeast Asia. This symposium on Northeast India and the Look East policy begins with Jairam Rameshs essay reviewing Indian policy towards the Northeast. Despite good intentions and a variety of approaches, the region, he points out is always in crisis. For every ten citizens there is roughly one armed personnel – not exactly how things should be in a democracy. He argues against the current conventional wisdom that spending more money on development will get the region out of its current predicament and concludes by outlining a bold vision for the regions future: political integration with India and economic integration with Southeast Asia. Sushil Khannas essay outlines a vision of Northeast India supplying hydroelectric power to its cross-border neighbours, pipelines moving gas and petroleum products across the transnational region and a water transport network – with lower transportation costs – making Northeast India an attractive investment destination. Picking up the last theme from another angle, Sanjoy Hazarika writes that since the main road and rail corridor of the region is under water or is affected by water for long periods every year, without substantial investments in water transportation the Look East policy will ‘run into the sandbanks of the Brahmaputra. M.P. Bezbaruah spells out the potential in the area of tourism. Indias tourism industry has traditionally focused primarily on western tourists and Northeast India is far away from the places from where most western tourists enter India. However, the changing geography of tourism since 9/11 has brought home the importance of regional and domestic tourism. By 2020 the Asia Pacific region is projected to become the second largest tourist generating market in the world. To open up to that market could be very rewarding for Northeast India. Ethnic festivals held under the watchful eyes of gun-toting soldiers are unlikely to become big tourist draws. The number of tourists visiting the region after negotiating obstacles such as rules requiring Restrictive Area Permits and Inner Line Permits remains very small. Few foreign scholars are given research visas to study Northeast India. The resultant isolation of Northeast Indian scholarship from global intellectual currents is a little known but significant cost of official Indias security obsession. Giving substance to the Northeast Indian thrust of our Look East policy would require settling the regions numerous conflicts through a comprehensive approach that goes beyond the unstable peace that policies shaped by todays counter-insurgency mind-set can bring about. It would be necessary to get out of the security prism and seek a general opening of the region, not unlike Mikhail Gorbachevs glasnost that involved opening doors and windows in intellectual, cultural, political matters as well as in the economic arena. Indias Look East policy was developed and enacted during the governments of Prime ministers P.V. Narasimha Rao (1991–1996) and Atal Bihari Vajpayee (1998–2004). Along with economic liberalisation and moving away from Cold War-era policies and activities, Indias strategy has focused on forging close economic and commercial ties, increasing strategic and security cooperation and the emphasis of historic cultural and ideological links. India sought to create and expand regional markets for trade, investments and industrial development. It also began strategic and military cooperation with nations concerned by the expansion of Chinas economic and strategic influence. INITIATED in the early days of the post-cold war era, Indias Look East policy has begun showing results. India is now one of four summit level partners – along with China, Japan and Korea – of the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN). Trade between India and ASEAN countries is expanding significantly. India has signed free trade area (FTA) agreements with Thailand and Singapore; had plans to create a free-trade area with Brunei, Indonesia and Malaysia by 2011 and with the remaining ASEAN countries – the Philippines, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam – by 2016. There are a number of structures of sub-regional cooperation in place including the Mekong-Ganga Cooperation (MGC) and BIMST-EC (Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, and Thailand – Economic Cooperation). Outside of ASEAN, bilateral trade between India and China has improved significantly and Prime Minister Manmohan Singhs proposal for an Asian economic community – to include ASEAN, China, Japan, Korea and India – generated significant excitement at the third ASEAN-India summit. IDSA Monograph Series No. 26, 2013 Institue of Defence Studies and Analysis The monograph explores Chinas perception of Indias Look East Policy (LEP) and how that affects Indias strategy in the Asia-Pacific region. Beijing does not favour a strong Indian presence and influence in Southeast Asia. China is both a determinant and a constraint in Indias Look East Policy. China is undoubtedly an important factor in shaping the policy, but it also acted as a constraint, for Indias hesitation and caution in taking an active role in Asia-Pacific security issues until very recently, was a function of its desire to avoid ruffling the feathers of Beijing. idsa.in/monograph/ChinasPerceptionofLookEastPolicyandItsImplications.html Long-time back in one post (important) I mentioned how and why Assam drew attention from British with information from other sources, here https://facebook/groups/579818935453205/permalink/581789828589449/
Posted on: Fri, 23 Jan 2015 23:43:02 +0000