'Look East through Northeast': Challenges and Prospects for India

This paper focuses on the considerable hurdles and limitations encountered in carrying forward India's 'Look East' through Northeast—problems caused by the nature of physical terrain, the history of violent conflicts in the region and its immediate neighbourhood which remains volatile, and the poor state of transport infrastructure and local industries in Northeast India and Myanmar, through which India has to access other ASEAN countries by land. It argues that although India will have to try to use the Northeast as a land bridge to Southeast Asia—more for ending the isolation of this frontier region to boost its future growth—India and its economy will largely have to 'look east' through the sea into Southeast Asia for trade and human movement for a variety of reasons.