Diplomacy

High-tech frontiers: India must become a member of CERN

- by India Writes Network

The European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) has emerged as the world’s leading laboratory for frontier research in physics. Recently, CERN discovered the Higgs Boson, the long sought goal of physics research at its Large Hadron Collider (LHC) facility which produces the world’s most powerful particle collisions. Starting off as a European organisation, CERN has broadened its outreach to non-European country membership, including India, which was granted the Observer status in 2002. While India has been participating in CERN’s activities, it is high time that India took the step of joining CERN as an associate member state, and eventually as a full member state.
As associate member, India will have the right to attend and participate in both the open and restricted sessions of the CERN Council as also send representatives to the meetings of the organization’s Finance Committee. Indians will also be eligible for appointments as staff members at CERN on contracts of limited duration and as Fellows. India should finalise its associate membership of CERN without further delay and seek full membership in CERN. The proposal for associate membership has been pending with the previous government and should now be approved by the new government. This will be a great service to Indian science and open up many opportunities in the future

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Chalein Saath Saath: Celebrating Republic Day, with Barack Obama

- by Manish Chand

Marking a new energy and a milestone in the defining partnership of the 21st century, Barack Obama will become the first US president India will host as chief guest on the Republic Day in 2015.
President Obama’s acceptance of Mr Modi’s invitation to come to India is nothing short of a diplomatic coup by India’s new prime minister, who was not too long ago shunned by Washington for his alleged inaction during the 2002 Gujarat riots, and denied a visa. More importantly, it’s a strategic masterstroke as Mr Obama’s visit – this is the first time the leaders of India and the US would have visited each other’s country within months – and sends a powerful signal across to India’s friends and adversaries alike in the region and the world at large. China will be specially watching the Obama visit as there is nothing Beijing is more apprehensive about than the growing cosiness and strategic compact between the world’s leading democracies. Pakistan, the perpetual griper, will obviously like to launch a diplomatic offensive, as it’s already doing with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif urging Mr Obama to take up the Kashmir issue with Mr Modi during their January meeting. Islamabad will probably get the same frosty answer as George Bush said in Islamabad so memorably in 2006: “Pakistan and India are different countries with different needs and different histories.”

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UK promises exceptional welcome to Modi, upbeat about India Story: Baroness Verma

- by India Writes Network

The multifarious ties between India and Britain are headed for a marked upswing. Moments after he met India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Brisbane, British Prime Minister David Cameron tweeted: “Relations with India are at the top of the priorities of UK’s foreign policy.” “Your’s is a very inspiring vision, U.K. wants to partner in any way we can,” Mr Cameron said in another tweet.
The British leader’s enthusiasm seems to be shared across the spectrum in Britain. Soon after the Modi-Cameron meeting, Manish Chand, Editor-in-Chief of India Writes Network (www.indiawrites.org), caught up with UK Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change Baroness Sandip Verma, and found her brimming with enthusiasm about the trajectory of the India-UK relations and the India growth story.
The 55-year-old politician and businesswoman, who has been made a Conservative peer for life, is also a visible emblem of the success of the Indian diaspora in Britain. In this wide-ranging interview with indiawrites.org in New Delhi, the Amritsar-born Sandip Verma speaks about how Britain is eagerly looking forward to offering Prime Minister Modi “exceptional welcome,” the success of the Indian community in Britain and soaring expectations about the India story under the leadership of a reform-minded prime minister.

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Sugar-sweet: India galvanises ties with Fiji

- by India Writes Network

In a defining outreach to Pacific islands community, India has unveiled a $75 million line of credit for Fiji for upgrading the sugar industry and sought to deepen defence and security cooperation with the archipelago nation.
Revitalising development partnership with Fiji, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who touched down in Suva at the crack of dawn on a day-long visit, also pledged $5 million fund to develop villages in the Pacific nation that is home to a large Indian diaspora. Persons of Indian origin comprise over 37 per cent of Fiji’s population.
Signalling a diplomatic upsurge with the Pacific island community, the Indian leader also held a summit meeting with the leaders of the island states. Mr Modi announced an ambitious Pan-Pacific Islands Network that will provide telemedicine and tele-education to residents of these countries.

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