The Statecraft Institute
Manashi Parashar

Author

Manashi Parashar

Assistant Professor

Assam Don Bosco University

Manashi Parashar is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Public Administration at Assam Don Bosco University, Guwahati, India, and a PhD Research Scholar in the Department of Political Science at Cotton University, Guwahati. Her doctoral research examines narco-insurgency, drug trafficking, and national security in the Indo–Myanmar borderlands, with a particular focus on Mon District of Nagaland. Her research interests include international relations, borderland studies, non-traditional security, insurgency, and India's Act East Policy. She has published in peer-reviewed journals on India's strategic interests, China, border security, and regional geopolitics.

Publications by Manashi Parashar

  • Published on
    Commentary
    Myanmar has quietly emerged as a crucial node in the global high-tech supply chain due to its vast reserves of heavy rare earth elements (HREEs) like dysprosium and terbium. Beijing has externalised the severe environmental and socio-political costs of critical mineral extraction by outsourcing HREE mining to northern Myanmar, establishing a de facto monopoly. However, the fluid governance dynamics of the Indo-Myanmar and Sino Myanmar borderlands, driven by Ethnic Armed Organisations and political instability in Myanmar since the coup of 2021, have disrupted Beijing’s stranglehold. This commentary analyses how India, leveraging its strategic positioning across the shared borderlands, can utilise this geopolitical inflection point to bolster its critical mineral security and advance its Act East ambitions