AEP must be rooted in NE : Dr Ranjan
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, August 20 2026: India's Act East Policy must flow from the North East rather than being framed in New Delhi and delivered to the region.

Former Union Minister of State for External Affairs and Education, Dr RK Ranjan, said this during a 2-day seminar, "Fostering economic linkages between North East India and South East Asia through religious and cultural ties," held at Manipur University.

"I told my colleagues that India's Act East Policy could not succeed as a policy drafted in Delhi and delivered to the North East.

It has to be a policy that flows from the North East outward," Dr Ranjan said at the seminar today.

AEP must be rooted in NE : Dr Ranjan

Describing the Moreh-Tamu crossing as "a threshold between two halves of the same cultural continuum," Dr Ranjan said economic connectivity can not be built through trade statistics and logistics corridors alone.

"It must draw strength from Buddhism, Vaishnavism, Sanamahism, oral epics, textile traditions and centuries of migration and marriage across the region." Peace and ethnic harmony within the North East are essential for any meaningful regional integration, he said.

Vice Chancellor in-charge of MU, Professor RK Hemakumar Singh, said that the North East's potential as a religious and cultural hub between India and Southeast Asia has remained largely untapped.

He said stronger cultural bonds could generate forward and backward economic linkages, promote pilgrimage and heritage tourism, attract infrastructure investment and create direct and indirect employment.

Handloom, handicrafts, agro-products, hospitality and transport could particularly benefit by connecting local producers with National and international markets, he added.

Professor Kuldip Chand Agnihotri, Executive Vice-Chairman of the Haryana Sahitya Evam Sanskriti Academy and former Vice-Chancellor of the Central University of Himachal Pradesh, described North East India as one of the historic gateways connecting India with Southeast Asia.

He said the Moreh route once linked India with the wider Southeast Asian region and proposed reviving cultural and pilgrimage circuits through Myanmar, Thailand and Cambodia.

He suggested routes connecting Moreh with Angkor Wat and linking Kaina in Manipur with Vrindavan, and said the Manipur University, because of its strategic location, could play a major role in rebuilding the region's intellectual and cultural bridges.

Professor Memcha Loitongbam, Dean of School of Social Sciences, called for people-centred regional integration involving artisans, entrepreneurs, women-led enterprises, young innovators and cultural institutions.

The seminar is sponsored by the North Eastern Council, Shillong, and held under the Ministry of Development of Northeastern Region (MDoNER), of the Government of India.

It is jointly organised by the Department of Economics and College Development Council of Manipur University and the Intellectual Forum of North East-Manipur.

Various intellectuals, resource persons, faculty members, research scholars and students of the Manipur University attended the seminar.