Act east and connectivity: Implications for northeastern region

The hotbed of state versus community conflict, Northeastern part of India connected with India by a just 26-km Siliguri Corridor while it shares an international border of 5,182 kilometres with the neighbouring countries. That's why strengthening connectivity of this region with rest of India is a matter of grave concern. Through pro-active Act East Policy, now Narendra Modi-led NDA Government is trying to improve connectivity of this Region with eastern neighbourhood as well as rest of India for economic development and reducing isolation of the region. This revamped close ties with eastern neighborhood includes various plans at bilateral and regional levels through trade, culture, people-to-people contacts and physical infrastructure (viz. road, airport, telecommunication, power, etc.). We can see multi-layered policy for this diversified region, which includes various multimodal and multilateral projects. Through various meetings and quick procedures, NDA Government is trying to fasten the work. How this happening at the fulcrum is the main thrust of my paper. My timeline will be four years of NDA rule under premiership of Narendra Modi (2014 - 2019). This paper is based on qualitative analysis of news paper reports, governmental data and primary survey of the field.