Business with India

India-Russia talks: Setting the stage for Putin’s visit to India

- by Manish Chand

Russian President Vladimir Putin is expected to be in India early December, much after India’s new prime minister would have held summit meetings with the leaders of the US, Japan, China and many other countries. Is Moscow going down a notch on India’s foreign policy radar under the new dispensation in New Delhi?
This kind of scepticism is voiced in some sections of the media and commentariat, but it would be a gross misreading of the Modi government’s foreign policy priorities. The fact that the Modi-Putin summit meeting is happening after other Modi’s headline-hogging meetings with world leaders does not mean anything; on the contrary it reflects enduring trust a comfort factor in the India-Russia relationship which has no parallel.
For Moscow remains pivotal to India’s core national interests, and the shifting geopolitical realities of the second decade of the 21st century is not going to change this plain fact. This centrality of Moscow’s place in India’s foreign policy calculus will be reflected in wide-ranging talks between Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin and India’s External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj in New Delhi November 5.

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India’s FDI dreams

- by India Writes Network

Billions of dollars in Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) have been assured to India thanks to Prime Minister Modi’s successful foreign tours and the visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping. Hopefully countries with more wealth and technology than us will help us create jobs. But in his efforts at gathering FDI, the Prime Minister is not any different from the previous government which also staged many road shows with union and state ministers, politicians and even the prime minister going abroad to woo foreign investors.

Everyone knows the advantages of FDI, but there are disadvantages also. One has to remember that FDI in the past has been capital intensive and not labour intensive. Foreign companies tend to use more technology to retain their competitiveness and flexibility than go for hiring more workers. Most are afraid of encountering labour problems. Millions of jobs, however, are needed in India and therefore there has to be a policy of encouraging labour intensive FDI. In mining industry, there is a danger of FDI harming the environment in their extractive manoeuvers. Hence India has to study carefully what kind of FDI it wants.

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