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Annual Report on the Development of the Indian Ocean Region (2016) pp 1–36Cite as

Geopolitical Considerations and the Modi Administration’s Development Strategy

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Abstract

After he came into power in 2014, Modi took the advantage of the general election to engage actively in the international arena for the sake of reshaping the Indian image as a “great power”, which enables India to draw a lot of attention in the world politics. In terms of domestic development, Modi also put his ideas into action by launching a series of reform measures to promote the domestic economic restructuring so that India tops the world in terms of economic growth rate. However, these glories are proved difficult to cover up the obstructions India has faced in going globally due to India’s structural problems in its economic development and the rigid thinking in the geopolitical concept. India is a country with rich “geopolitical imagination”. Once the strategic perception based on geopolitical imagination is converted into foreign policy or state activities, its practical significance and related impacts will be fully reflected. Once geopolitical imagination is divorced from reality, it will exacerbate geo-strategic competition and spawn security dilemma. Currently, India feels threatened about the Belt and Road Initiative proposed by China, which makes Sino-Indian geopolitical contradictions relatively more prominent. Therefore, India needs to have a more open mind.

Zhu Cuiping: Professor and Deputy Director of Research Institute for Indian Ocean Economies (RIIO) of Yunnan University of Finance and Economics

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  1. Yunnan University of Finance and Economics, Kunming Shi, China

    Cuiping Zhu

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  1. Research Institute for Indian Ocean Econ, Yunnan Universit of Finance and Economic Research Institute for Indian Ocean Econ, Kunming, Yunnan, China

    Rong Wang

  2. Research Institute of Indian Ocean Econo, Yunnan University of Finance and Economi Research Institute of Indian Ocean Econo, Kunming, Yunnan, China

    Cuiping Zhu

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Zhu, C. (2017). Geopolitical Considerations and the Modi Administration’s Development Strategy. In: Wang, R., Zhu, C. (eds) Annual Report on the Development of the Indian Ocean Region (2016). Research Series on the Chinese Dream and China’s Development Path. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-4693-3_1

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