Digital Transformation and Infrastructure Readiness in Autonomous Institutions: A Systematic Review of Disparities Between Policy Aspirations and Ground Realities, with a Case for the Northeast India

Abstract

National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 has made digital transformation one of the foundations to transform the higher education ecosystem of India, especially in autonomous institutions with flexibility in the form of academic freedom. But, there are still important gaps between policy dreams and ground performance, particularly in geographically and infrastructurally disadvantaged areas such as Northeast India. This systematic review will look at the infrastructural preparedness of autonomous institutions to undergo digital transformation and provide an analysis of the disparity between NEP 2020 requirements and real-world scenarios at the level of Indian institutions of higher learning with particular focus on the Northeastern states. We searched PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, Google Scholar, and ERIC databases by using PRISMA 2020 principles to identify peer-reviewed articles and grey literature published between 2015- 2026 and synthesized thematically. Out of 1,247 records found, 47 studies were included. National statistics indicate that all institutions had embraced online education portal but only 32.1% have sufficient infrastructure to have it effectively implemented. The northeastern states were also continuously performing 15-20 percentage points lower than the national averages on all measures of readiness. It revealed five key dimensions of disparity, which include infrastructure shortage, shortage of human capital, misalignment of policy-implementation, regional digital inequity, and sustainability challenges. NEP 2020 needs a regional approach to the digital vision, a focus on the infrastructure investment, a public-private collaboration, and culture-based implementation frameworks to consider the unique socio-cultural and geographical setting of Northeast India. To be sustainable, autonomous institutions need special digital transformation offices, ongoing faculty development, and maintenance budgets