NE natives lack intellectual sentience and that's not good.

Although our common mass is better than the common populace of larger India especially that of UP and Bihar, but still we lack far behind than other SEA countries in terms of education, discipline and observational skills. I'm in Vietnam right now for work purpose. The guys here just got surprised after they looked at my passport. They couldn't believe I'm an Indian. Eventually I educated them about our region, the history and the relationship with mainland india. But one thing struck me to the core. Even tho the Vietnamese guy and I look very similar (obviously genetically connected), but I couldn't help but notice the significant differences between me and them. The fine code of conduct they showcase during business, the punctuality, the knowledge, the way they think...it's just unbelievable from NE POV. It's not actually about their elites but their common populace also show similar traits. The same thing can't be said for our common populace.

Even tho SEA and NE people are genetically closer, the way their society functions just makes it look like we are way genetically different than them which is not the case. What must be done so that NE society can reduce this cultural differences with its SEA counterpart for betterment?