Setting new Act East agenda for Northeast

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s proposal at the recent 21st ASEAN-India Summit for declaring the year 2025 as the “ASEAN-India Year of Tourism” has brought huge opportunities for promotion of tourism destinations in the Northeast region. India will commit 5 million US dollars towards this initiative, he further announced, triggering hopes for increased fund flow for boosting tourism between India and ASEAN countries. When Prime Minister Modi declared the Act East policy, he had also emphasized the centrality of the Northeast region in the multilateral partnership. The policy has helped strengthen India’s relations with the ASEAN bloc. India’s trade with ASEAN has already doubled and surpassed the volume of 130 billion US dollars over the past decade. Ironically, 95% of this trade originates in states outside the Northeast region. Celebration of ten years of strong partnership between India and ASEAN, therefore, also reminds the states in the Northeast region to reflect on this hard reality. The question of why the region missed the bus despite the central government prioritizing it in the Act East policy continues to dominate discourses around the policy with respect to the growth, development, and progress of the Northeast region. A comprehensive review of all the initiatives undertaken to unlock the region’s untapped potential for trade, commerce, and tourism under the Act East policy is crucial to draw the lessons learnt and set the agenda for the next decade. India has also proposed to organize a variety of events between India and ASEAN countries, such as a music festival, Youth Summit, Hackathon, and Start-up Festival for connecting artists, youth, entrepreneurs, think tanks, etc. Northeastern states have already demonstrated their capability in hosting international events. India’s proposal has raised hopes for Northeast deriving maximum benefits out of it. This will require the states in the region to lobby unitedly for destinations in each state as the venues for the lion’s share of the proposed events. The scope of expanding Northeast’s engagement has already widened with India launching the Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative in 2019 to synergize with the ASEAN Outlook on the Indo-Pacific. Prime Minister Modi has also announced that Masters scholarships for students from ASEAN countries at the Nalanda University will be increased two-fold, and additionally, a new scholarship scheme for ASEAN students at India’s agricultural universities will also be launched starting this year. So far, 300 ASEAN students have benefitted from the scholarships. The flow of students does not just focus the attention of policymakers and planners on boosting cross-border connectivity; they also become ambassadors of sustained people-to-people engagement among countries. Universities in the Northeast region can tap the potential of attracting students from ASEAN countries through the introduction of courses in which the students from these countries will be interested to enrol. Apart from urging the central government to provide Masters scholarships for ASEAN students at universities in the region, the states too can provide such scholarships to attract them. The joint statement by India and ASEAN calls for strengthening cooperation for advancing digital transformation and collaboration to leverage digital public infrastructure across sectors in addressing diverse challenges such as education, healthcare, agriculture, and climate action. The joint statement recognises that artificial intelligence (AI) is changing job landscapes rapidly and there is a need for upskilling and reskilling the workforce. also states that India and ASEAN support collaboration in capacity building on AI education initiatives, develop Al-focused vocational training programs, and create platforms for knowledge exchange to prepare the workforce for the future job market. It also welcomes collaboration to develop studies on governance, standards, and tools to support and assess the achievement of fairness, robustness, equitable access, and other mutually agreed principles of responsible AI to promote trustworthiness in artificial intelligence systems. The joint statement is a pointer for the universities in the region towards skills both India and ASEAN countries are looking at to achieve the objectives and plan introduction of new courses and syllabus to draw optimal benefits from this multilateral cooperation and make the region a new educational hub for ASEAN students. There is no denying the fact that infrastructure and connectivity in the region have significantly improved over the past decade under the Act East policy implementation focus on Northeast, even though the pace of implementation is still much slow and there is a need to expedite it. If the region can attract tourists and students from ASEAN countries in large numbers, it will provide fresh impetus to connectivity projects both within the region and cross-border initiatives. It is high time that the region considers the progress already made and plans meticulously to set the agenda for the next decade of India-ASEAN engagement. Organizing stakeholder consultations more frequently by government departments, universities, and think tanks will help prepare a comprehensive agenda for putting Northeast at the pole position under Act East policy.