Meghalaya's Industrial Leap under the Act East Policy

  • Unique Paper ID: 192821
  • Volume: 12
  • Issue: 9
  • PageNo: 3346-3350
  • Abstract:
  • India's Act East Policy (AEP) aims at improving economic, strategic, and cultural ties with Southeast Asia and the development of the northeastern states. Meghalaya, with its 443 km strategically positioned border with Bangladesh, has enormous potential to become a trade and industrial center under the AEP policy. This analysis locates the policy implications on Meghalaya's industrial growth with specific reference to enhanced connectivity, logistics, and sectoral opportunities in agriculture, mining, tourism, and handicrafts. Mega projects like the Meghalaya Logistics and Connectivity Improvement Project and infrastructure development like the Shillong-Dawki Highway will stem the cost of logistics and enhance trade. Issues like poor infrastructure, problems in regulating the mining sector, and the lack of adequate cold storage facilities still dominate despite this. With proper leverage of the AEP, Meghalaya can attract foreign direct investment (FDI), promote export-oriented industries, and be integrated into ASEAN markets. Strategic policy intervention, green practices, and facilitation of cross-border trade are the solutions to Meghalaya's aspirations to become a USD 10 billion economy by 2028 and to facilitate sustained industrial growth.

Copyright & License

Copyright © 2026 Authors retain the copyright of this article. This article is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

BibTeX

@article{192821,
        author = {Bartley Noel Dkhar},
        title = {Meghalaya's Industrial Leap under the Act East Policy},
        journal = {International Journal of Innovative Research in Technology},
        year = {2026},
        volume = {12},
        number = {9},
        pages = {3346-3350},
        issn = {2349-6002},
        url = {https://ijirt.org/article?manuscript=192821},
        abstract = {India's Act East Policy (AEP) aims at improving economic, strategic, and cultural ties with Southeast Asia and the development of the northeastern states. Meghalaya, with its 443 km strategically positioned border with Bangladesh, has enormous potential to become a trade and industrial center under the AEP policy. This analysis locates the policy implications on Meghalaya's industrial growth with specific reference to enhanced connectivity, logistics, and sectoral opportunities in agriculture, mining, tourism, and handicrafts. Mega projects like the Meghalaya Logistics and Connectivity Improvement Project and infrastructure development like the Shillong-Dawki Highway will stem the cost of logistics and enhance trade. Issues like poor infrastructure, problems in regulating the mining sector, and the lack of adequate cold storage facilities still dominate despite this. With proper leverage of the AEP, Meghalaya can attract foreign direct investment (FDI), promote export-oriented industries, and be integrated into ASEAN markets. Strategic policy intervention, green practices, and facilitation of cross-border trade are the solutions to Meghalaya's aspirations to become a USD 10 billion economy by 2028 and to facilitate sustained industrial growth.},
        keywords = {Act East Policy; Meghalaya; Connectivity; Mining; Infrastructure; Industries; Development; Southeast Asia: ASEAN; Meghalaya Vision 2030; Export; Trade; Resources; Incentives; Public-Private Partnership; Sustainability},
        month = {February},
        }

Cite This Article

Dkhar, B. N. (2026). Meghalaya's Industrial Leap under the Act East Policy. International Journal of Innovative Research in Technology (IJIRT), 12(9), 3346–3350.

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