The Transition from Look East Policy to Act East Policy: The Performance of Northeast India States

The paper made a comparative study of the performance of NEI states in economic growth, trade and investment inflows under Look East Policy (LEP) and Act East Policy (AEP) based on secondary data. AEP is viewed as a paradigm shift in respect of NEI compared to LEP due to the renewed thrust on infrastructure and connectivity constructions since last decade. NEI states received much attention in connectivity development and investment allocations in infrastructure build up under AEP compared to LEP. But NEI states did not witness significant improvement in economic growth, trade and investment under AEP since last decade. In fact, average annual growth rate of NSDP (except Assam) and per-capita NSDP (except Assam and Mizoram) of NEI states decelerated under AEP compared to LEP. This findings question the ‘trade based’ development model in NEI despite much emphasis on connectivity development under AEP.