Act East Policy

India's Act East Policy, launched in 2014 as the more action-oriented successor to the 1991 Look East Policy, reframed the entire purpose of the North-East. Instead of a dead-end frontier hemmed in by international borders, the eight states were recast as India's land bridge to South-East Asia — the physical gateway to the markets of Myanmar, Thailand and the wider ASEAN bloc, with which India seeks deeper trade, cultural and strategic ties. Because the region shares over 5,300 km of border with China, Bhutan, Myanmar, Bangladesh and Nepal, it sits at the very centre of this vision.

The policy's most visible expression is connectivity. The India–Myanmar–Thailand Trilateral Highway aims to run 1,400 km from Moreh in Manipur through Myanmar to Mae Sot in Thailand; it is reported to be around 70% complete, though the military coup in Myanmar since 2021 has delayed the final sections. The Kaladan Multi-Modal Transit Transport Project links Kolkata by sea to Sittwe port in Myanmar and onward, by river and road, to Mizoram — its waterway leg was inaugurated in 2023, with the Paletwa–Zorinpui road still to finish. Alongside these, new international flights from Guwahati to Bangkok, Singapore, Dubai and Paro have turned the city into a genuine gateway.

Act East is also increasingly about investment and soft power. The Rising Northeast Investors Summit in New Delhi in May 2025 generated investment commitments reported at around ₹4.48 lakh crore, and a high-level task force has been set up to build a North East Economic Corridor, its findings presented to the North Eastern Council in 2026. BIMSTEC — the Bay of Bengal grouping — has emerged as an overlooked but important pillar, with the Northeast as its natural hinterland. The government now brands the region 'Ashtalakshmi', the eight forms of prosperity.

The honest picture includes real obstacles. The civil conflict in Myanmar has stalled the Kaladan and Trilateral projects and forced a rethink of the open border at Moreh; political turbulence in Bangladesh delayed the Agartala–Akhaura rail link; and internal unrest in Manipur has complicated the eastern corridor. Act East is therefore a long game — but the direction is set, and the infrastructure now being built will outlast the current disruptions.