Act East Forum gets push with upcoming summit

09 Dec 2019 Editorial Team

Reportedly, as a boost to India’s ‘Act East Policy’ and Japan’s ‘Free and Open Indo Pacific Strategy’, the first annual Indo-Japan summit will be held from December 15 to December 16. The gathering of the two nations is expected to set the ball rolling on their Act East forum given that Japan is planning investments of around Rs 130 billion in the eight North Eastern states of India.

It is reported that Japan is currently weighing investments towards numerous projects in the region, including – a water supply project in Guwahati, a road network in Assam-Meghalaya and forest management and agriculture projects in other states of the region. It is estimated that new plans and blueprints will be announced at the upcoming summit for more projects in the area – given its close proximity to Southeast Asia.

Recently, on November 30, the two countries participated in a dialogue where the respective defence and foreign ministers underlined various points of discussion – top of which is reported to be Japan’s involvement in the North East region of India.

Reportedly, Japan’s involvement in providing aid for developing North East began in 2011 with the overseas development assistance (ODA) but actually picked up post 2014.

Additionally, as reported, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) signed a memorandum with the Indian Government in 2017 with the aim of providing $610 million for the first phase of the North East Road Network Connectivity Improvement Project for projects in Meghalaya and Mizoram. The Act East Forum was established subsequently with the purpose of economic enhancement in the region.

Infrastructure Transport

12 Mar 2026

Kavach 4.0 Commissioned on Delhi–Mumbai and Delhi–Howrah

"Kavach version four has been commissioned on 1,452 route km, covering the high density Delhi–Mumbai and Delhi–Howrah corridors. The rollout included laying 8,570 km of optical fibre, installation of 1,100 telecom towers, deployment of trackside equipment over 6,776 RKm and establishment of 767 station data centres. Trackside implementation has been taken up on 24,427 RKm covering Golden Quadrilateral, Golden Diagonal and High Density Network sections. The programme aims to strengthen signalling and train protection on key routes.Kavach is an indigenously developed automatic train protecti..

Railways Advance Kalyan–Murbad Line And Mumbai Capacity Expansion

"Indian Railways is advancing multiple rail infrastructure projects in Maharashtra, including the sanctioned Kalyan–Murbad new line and sizable investments under the Mumbai Urban Transport Project and the Mumbai–Ahmedabad High Speed Rail project. The Kalyan–Murbad 28 km new line has been sanctioned at Rs 8.36 billion (bn) on a 50:50 cost-sharing basis with the Government of Maharashtra and has been declared a Special Railway Project for land acquisition; proposals covering 214 hectares are at various stages of acquisition. Budgetary outlay for projects falling fully or partly in Maharash..

Parliamentary Panel Flags Funding Gaps in Heavy Industries

"The Department-Related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Industry (Rajya Sabha) presented its 332nd report on the Demands for Grants 2026-27 of the Ministry of Heavy Industries (MHI). Figures converted from crore and lakh are expressed in million (mn). The Budget Estimates 2026-27 for the Ministry stand at Rs 79,399 mn against a projected requirement of Rs 94,843.2 mn, a shortfall of about 16 per cent, with revenue at Rs 79,370.8 mn and capital compressed to Rs 28.2 mn from Rs 5,020 mn.The committee flagged recurring BE-to-RE compression and declining revised estimate utilisation, and calle..