From borderland to India’s strategic resource frontier

The article highlights a significant shift in India's perception of its northeastern states, from primarily border security concerns to recognizing them as strategic resource frontiers for critical minerals like lithium, cobalt, graphite, nickel, and rare earth elements. It details increased exploration efforts by the Ministry of Mines and Geological Survey of India (GSI) in states like Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Assam, and Nagaland. The analysis emphasizes the need to integrate local communities, their customary land systems, and historical context into resource development plans to ensure political inclusion and avoid past tensions, rather than merely viewing the region as a landscape for extraction.