Neoliberal Developmentalism: State Strategy in India's North East

Act East through India’s Northeast: Limits of Neoliberal Strategies towards Developing an Underdeveloped Region

“…In another recent account on the geopolitical dimension of the Northeast borderland, Gogoi (2020) urged for a constructivist world view to achieve trans-national interaction for the Northeast to overcome its present geopolitical trap. Scholars such as Bhattacharya (2018Bhattacharya ( , 2019, Chakraborty (2018) and Mishra (2013) locate the economic integration of the Northeast with Southeast Asia as proposed under the Look (Act) East Policy within the context of India's neoliberal economic restructuring and strategy to engage with the trans-regional market economy. Sarma andChoudhury (2018, 2020) also favour developing the Northeast through the strategy of international trade.…”

“…It has a strong logic for liberalising the national economy by integrating it with the global economic sphere with a firm belief that 'country's exports drive its economic growth' (Stiglitz, 2002, p. 4). As part of this neoliberal restructuring, India opened up its economy and sought greater economic integration with the world economy through the mechanism of transnational market, trade and capital and labour movement (Bhattacharya, 2019). The introduction of the Look (Act) East Policy can be seen as an attempt on the part of India to seek such economic engagement with the flourishing market economy of Southeast Asia and Northeast India is viewed as a strategic space connecting the two regions.…”

“…The actualisation of this new geography of Northeast India has been attempted by converting Northeast and neighbouring cross-border regions of Southeast Asia into an open economic space. In this regard, sub-regional economic arrangement, cross-border connectivity corridor and transnational economic interactions such as border trade, trans-border production networks and cross-border trade and supply chains have been emphasised as the main mechanism for realising the goal (Bhattacharya, 2019;Mishra, 2013). The possibility of transnational economic linkages is being viewed with the expectation that it would promote trade and investment in the sub-region and bring economic growth and prosperity to Northeast India.…”

“…The BCIM economic corridor will connect Kunming of China's Yunnan province and pass through Yangon and Mandalay in Myanmar and Chittagong-Dhaka-Sylhet in Bangladesh before entering the Northeastern states, Bihar, Bengal and ending in Kolkata (Choudhury, 2018). The Northeast region of India can find a central place in this forum as it borders all other three countries and can provide passage to connect them as contiguous space and participate in a trans-regional economy covering Southeast China, Bangladesh and Myanmar (Bhattacharya, 2019).…”