What Is India’s Act East Policy? | UPSC International Relations
India’s Act East Policy is an important policy that is announced in November 2014 and it is the upgrade of the Look East Policy. It is an initiative to promote economic, strategic, and cultural relations with the Asia-Pacific region at different levels.
The aim of India’s Act East Policy is to promote economic support and develop cultural ties, and strategic relations with the countries located in the Indo-Pacific region. India’s Act East Policy is based on the 4 C’s which are Culture, Commerce, Connectivity, and Capacity building.
What is the difference between Look East and Act East Policy?
The focus of the Look East Policy was to improve the economic cooperation and integration with the South East Asian Countries and the area was only restricted to South East Asia only.
The Act East Policy focuses on economic and security integration and the focus is upgraded to South East Asia and also East Asia as well.
In the Look East Policy, the Indian economy was heavily dependent on the Soviet Union. When the Soviet Union dissolved, India started looking at alternative regions for growth.
In the Act East Policy, the focus was on tackling the changing Geo-political scenario due to dominance by China, and its increasing influence in the Indian Ocean region.
In the Look East Policy, India did not focus on developing infrastructure in other countries.
In the Act East policy, India is collaborating with the top countries to develop Infrastructure in the country and in the neighboring countries as well.
What are the objectives of the Act East Policy?
The main objective of Act East Policy is to promote economic cooperation and develop a strategic relationship with the countries in the Asia-Pacific region through continuous engagement at regional, bilateral, and multilateral levels.
Another important aspect of the Act East Policy is to increase the interaction with the North Eastern Indian states and with other neighboring countries like Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Maldives, and others.
The Act East Policy was introduced to find out the alternatives to the traditional business partners and focus on the pacific countries and also South East Asian countries.
Initiatives under Act East Policy
Here are some of the wonderful initiatives taken under the Act East Policy for enhancing the connectivity between the countries.
1. Agartala-Akhaura Rail link between India and Bangladesh
2. Trilateral highway project that connects the Northeast countries with Myanmar and Thailand.
3. Mahabahu-Brahmaputra inland waterway program opened the three Ro-pax vessels functioning between Neamati-Majuli island, North Guwahati-South Guwahati, and Dhubri-Hastingimari.
4. Dhubri Phulbari Bridge is also one of the wonderful initiatives taken under the Act East Policy. The foundation stone for a 19km long four-lane Dhubri Phulbari bridge over the Brahmaputra river will be connecting Dhubri in Assam and Phulbari in Meghalaya.
5. The Kaladan Multimodal transit transport project in Myanmar is considered one of the crucial aspects in developing relations with the northeastern states.
6. The intermodal transport links and inland waterways initiative via Bangladesh are also taken under the Act East Policy.
The Act East Policy has been brought in to act to develop the relationship between the neighboring countries, and build some major projects between the countries so that the development in economic, infrastructure and cultural aspects will get better.
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