| Publication |
2014.
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| Summary/Abstract |
The year 2012 completed 20 years of India's Look East Policy (LEP). Launched by former Indian Prime Minister P.V. NarashimeRao in 1992, this policy had its genesis in the end of the cold war following the collapse of the Soviet Union. To India, this policy was more than just a foreign policy alternative as it provided a development alternative as well, in synchronization with the globalization paradigm and the resurgence of Asia as an economic powerhouse. The 1990: saw a period rapid economic development and growth of Asian countries - especially Southeast Asia. With the abrupt collapse c the Soviet Union in 1991, India was left 'deprived' (the Soviet Union was lndia's strongest partner), and started to seek new markets t~
fuel its own economic growth. Thus Indian Prime Minister at the time P.V. Narasimha Rao, came up with the concept of a "Look East Policy for India. This was a policy of economic engagement with Southeast Asia and East Asia, to achieve two objectives. First was to encourage trade links with individual partners, and second, to provide foreign employment for India's own expanding work force (R.P. Khanna, 1991,6-7).
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