 Long before the British colonialists occupied the Indian subcontinent, northeast was one of the richest areas of the region. It had an active economic discourse with its neighbours. Land and river routes were taken to travel to as far as Kashmir. It had traditional links with Nepal, Tibet and China. Assam and other areas of the northeast had one of the highest per capita income. Its ample resources like wood, oil, tea and other agricultural goods and the ability to trade live in the standard of living. The northeastern region was a kind of meeting point surrounded by different countries. When India attained independence, when the partition took place, actually the entire northeastern region was reduced to a landlocked cocoon. You know, and all our traditional trade, commerce, the linkages got disrupted. That affected the growth of northeast. Due to its geostrategic presence, the government did not really build any industry in these parts. War with China in 1962 built a case for north developing this region. Expectedly, there were very few employment opportunities. It set off a vicious cycle of lack of development and insurgency. In 1991, Indian government shed much of its Cold War baggage and began putting together the forgotten pieces of an old jigsaw puzzle. Maps of disused road and rail links, old river routes that kept northeast integrated with the rest of India and other countries in its neighborhood were revived. Termed as the Lukis policy, it revisited history to create new paradigms that were based on geography, shared culture and common religion. Lukis policy is basically a change from our trading practices and investment outlook which were mostly with the western world. And the Lukis policy is a belated appreciation of the fact that geographically we are part of Asia. The Lukis policy to me seems to be a change in strategy where instead of containment, now we are coming around to empowering people to be part of India which I think is a very, very significant change. India's Lukis policy was premised on the belief that northeast shares 4,500 km long border with neighboring countries and is joined by just 37 km corridor with India. Therefore, it made more economic sense to trade with neighbors rather than the mainland. The Lukis policy is a grand vision that envisages not only seeing northeast as the entry port to the rest of the Southeast Asia but also a recipe for the revival of northeast. There is a greater clarity in this vision this time after it was initiated in the early 90s. A Lukis policy could only work if it brought development to the neglected northeast. It also involved creating an educational infrastructure comprising of colleges, technical institutes and vocational schools that could channelize the youth into productive activities and wean them away from the path of violence. For any region to develop, it is important to know your own strengths. The same holds true for northeast. It has a large mass of English-speaking people that can easily be used in BPO's and the hospitality sector. We are good in English-speaking, we are good in IT. The northeast has a tremendous huge electricity generating capability and potential which I am sure will be very much beneficial to Myanmar and Bangladesh. We have coal deposits here, we have so many goods are here and so many things that our people have the skills but because of the link is missing. So we have not really been able to possibly flourish.