Global Indian News
The United States is contemplating sanctions against Chinese companies and individuals who benefited from cyber thefts of valuable US trade secrets. The decision comes ahead of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s …
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India is keenly watching the unfolding dramatic events in East Asia as these not only have a bearing on its recent “Act East” policy, but also on regional stability issues. At stake are not merely half of Indian trade, major investments, markets, technology flows that transit through this region but also the subtle messages of power transition between China and Japan in the short and medium term.
China is celebrating the “V-J [Victory over Japan] Day” on September 3 with a massive Beijing military parade. It is also the first time that Beijing would be inviting armed forces from abroad to participate in a national event and also the first time President Xi Jinping will be organising such an event. The previous military parade was several years ago on the 60th national day in October 2009.
today the increasing contest between powers in the region – as reflected in the rising nationalism and right-wing sentiments, higher defence allocations, military modernization and outreach – have contributed to spirals of tension.
Ahead of the 70th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), India’s top leadership is set to engage the President-elect of the UNGA Mogens Lykketoft and impress upon him the imperative of fast-tracking reforms of the UN Security Council.
Mr Lykketoft, a former speaker of Denmark’s parliament, will succeed Uganda’s Sam Kuetsa and will begin his UNGA presidency in September at the commencement of the 70th General Assembly session. He will meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj.
The reforms of the UNSC have languished for years due to procedural quibbles and indifference of the permanent members of the UNSC, who are not keen to let emerging powers inside this exclusive club. India is hoping for for the launch of the text-based negotiations at the 70th anniversary of the founding of the UN, and this will be the key point of discussions between Mr Modi and Mr Lykketoft.
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In an interview to N. Ram for ‘The Hindu’ a day after being sworn in as Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister – for a second time in eight months and fourth time, overall – Ranil Wickremesinghe referred to India-facilitated Thirteenth Amendment, circa 1987, “build on it…maximise it” for finding a negotiated settlement to the vexatious ethnic issue in the island-nation. On China, another issue of concern for India, he had this to say: “We get back to having the close relations we had with the West and with India while maintaining our relationship with China, which has also been a longstanding one. And looking at our own role in the region and what stand we will take on some of the main international issues.”
Surprisingly for a South Asian, Third World nation’s Prime Minister in his place, Wickremesinghe was less critical of arch-political rival and former President Mahinda Rajapaksa. Was it a kind bonhomie that had marked the personal disposition of the two leaders towards each other through the past decade and more, or was it also indicative of a kind of broad national consensus’ on key issues about which enough signs and signals where available for long now?
If nothing else, until the ‘people were ready to vote out Rajapaksa’ or even afterward, Ranil and his UNP were less than critical of the former’s regime. It owed to their combined ability to retain and recover much of the ‘traditional’ UNP vote-share/vote-bank on the one hand. On the other, they might have also not wanted to risk targeting the ‘war-victor’, whose image the civil society and the social media had sullied enough.
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Pakistan’s military has always touted India as the primary threat to the country. This projection of the India threat keeps the powerful military establishment in business. It’s therefore not surprising to find Pakistan’s Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff committee reiterating what has been the guiding credo of Rawalpindi HQ. “India is the only external threat for Pakistan,” General Rashad Mahmood, who is the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff committee, told Senate Defence Committee members on August 27 about the perceived threat.
Pakistan’s military informed the committee that India had purchased USD 100 billion worth of weapons of which 80 percent were Pakistan-specific and it is expected that India would be buying weapons worth another USD 100 billion.
The statement coming soon after the cancellation of the talks between National Security Advisers of both countries is set to sour the atmpsherics between the two nuclear-armed neighbours.
While there has been no official reaction so far from the Indian side, such remarks don’t create a conducive atmosphere for any sustained engagement between the two countries.
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On August 24, India’s stock markets witnessed a Black Monday with the Sensex falling over 1,600 points. Panic did strike the markets and the depreciation of the rupee only added to the worries. India’s Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and Governor of Reserve Bank of India Raghuram Rajan came out to reassure the investors that it is only a temporary pain that India had to endure. Overall, the fundamentals were very strong and the market mayhem was more due to the ongoing economic crisis in China, they said.
In today’s global integrated markets any crisis in any part of the world is likely to impact markets world over. The impact of such a crisis on different markets varies from country to country, based on their exposure to the crisis-hit markets. China has been seeing its stock markets and real economy slump over the past few weeks. And when the world’s second largest economy took a hit and witnessed a steep fall in recent times, it was bound to create panic across the global markets.
China’s surprise move to devaluate its currency sent ripples across markets. The Shanghai Composite Index dropped 8.5 percent that led to sell off in stocks and commodities around the markets in the world. During the 2008 global financial crisis China was seen as a shock absorber and even India did well to weather the crisis at that point of time. Both the countries were cited as examples of resilience to global shocks worldwide.
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India’s smart cities mission has moved a step forward with the government announcing the list of 98 ‘Smart Cities’ that will be developed to enhance the quality of urban life in India. With the Indian economy growing over the past couple of decades, a host of problems associated with unplanned urbanization have cropped up.
Indian cities have started becoming unlivable, according to many urban development reports, and are facing plenty of challenges from housing to infrastructure, sanitation, employment and public transport. To help address these issues, the government has shortlisted 98 cities across the country as part of its Smart Cities project.
The Centre has decided to provide funding of Rs 48,000 crore to selected cities to improve infrastructure and public service delivery with the help of technology and e-governance.
Smart City has also become a major plank of India’s foreign policy thrust, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeking support of developed countries in his quest to transform the country’s urban infrastructure. The United States, France, Germany, China and Japan are some of India’s key external partners in this smart cities project. Urban Development Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu stressed that these smart cities will be equipped with robust IT connectivity and digitization and core infrastructure such as water supply, electricity supply, sanitation, public transport, solid waste management and affordable housing. “We are not just aiming at making our urban landscape fanciful and flashy but the prime objective is to enhance quality of urban life,” said Mr Naidu.
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Even as India faces tough criticism from international observers for having abstained from voting on a recent UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) resolution that condemns Israel’s actions during the July/August 2014 Israel-Gaza conflict, President Pranab Mukherjee’s visit to Israel in October and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s intention to visit Tel Aviv in the near future marks a clear shift in the diplomatic relationship between the two countries.
Since the establishment of formal diplomatic ties in 1992 the two nations are often thought to be ‘isolated democracies’, as they continue to operate in highly militarised regional neighbourhoods and have a mutual benefit in fighting Islamic terrorism across borders in the Middle East. Strategic relations between the two nations have largely focused on the sale of defence equipment and technology, although agriculture and information technology also form a key aspect of India’s economic and trade relations with Israel. India is the largest buyer of Israeli defence equipment, and the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) has in the past developed and launched a military satellite for Israel. Similarly, some recent estimates from the Embassy of India in Tel Aviv suggest that bilateral trade between the two countries is set to cross $5 billion in the next few years. In this context, the strengthening of diplomatic ties under the BJP-led government in New Delhi points towards the fact that a more open rapprochement that is already underway.
It is possible to argue that while recent developments might have served to bring India’s strategic relations with Israel into focus, there has been no fundamental change in the relationship. Israel has been a strategic partner for India for the past decade and a more favourable diplomatic climate has presented itself at the most opportune moment for the Narendra Modi government to improve upon what has already been built by previous governments in New Delhi. The same can be argued in the case of India’s position on Palestine. Vikas Swarup, spokesperson for India’s Ministry of External Affairs, recently spoke in defence of India’s decision to abstain from the UNHRC vote, and pointed out that India is still very firmly in support of the Palestinian cause. It is unclear, however, what aspect of the Palestinian cause has been most vehemently taken up by India at various international forums. More specifically, the occupation of Palestinian territories by Israeli Defence Forces and the grave human rights violations committed by the latter have been referred to as areas of concern by India, but the country has failed to take a firm stance on either issue at the United Nations.
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In a major leap forward for New Delhi’s interests in the strategic Indian Ocean region, India and Seychelles have signed a pact for cooperation on Blue Economy to promote sustainable ocean development in the region. India has decided to gift one more Interceptor Coastguard boat to Seychelles, and formally signed a pact for giving a second Dornier aircraft to the Indian Ocean island nation, a key commitment made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his visit to Seychelles in March this year.
“In March, I had announced that we would gift a second Dornier aircraft to Seychelles. I am pleased that we have completed the process quickly and signed the agreement today,” Mr Modi said in a joint media interaction with Seychelles President James Alix Michel in New Delhi on August 25.
“President and I place strong emphasis on Ocean or Blue Economy. I believe, as he does, that we should look at small island countries as large ocean states with vast potential”, said Mr Modi.
“We are honoured to be a partner in providing aircraft, naval vessels and coastal radar systems for strengthening surveillance capacities. Our cooperation in hydrography surveys is extensive and growing,” Mr Modi stressed.
India’s burgeoning cooperation with Seychelles comes against Beijing’s growing forays into the Indian Ocean region, which New Delhi is prone to regard as its backyard.
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Ahead of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s visit to New Delhi in October, India’s External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj is looking to firm up an ambitious agenda to expand economic and strategic ties with Europe’s most powerful economy. During Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Germany in April 2015, a joint statement issued at the end of the visit had said the two countries have established a robust roadmap for expanding their multi-faceted and mutually-beneficial ties and to further strengthen strategic partnership.
Ms Swaraj who is on a two-day visit to Germany as part of her two-nation visit to Egypt and Germany will hold talks with her German counterpart Frank Walter Steinmeier and a number of other leaders. India and Germany are expected to review their bilateral relationship and focus on expanding their economic relations.
In the joint statement issued between both countries during PM Modi’s visit to Germany, it was decided that both sides would collaborate in areas such as manufacturing, skill development, urban development, environment, railways and renewable energy.
Collaboration in manufacturing is expected to give thrust to the Make in India campaign. Skill development is expected to improve employability of trainees and apprentices. Establishment of a working group on urban development will strengthen bilateral cooperation and also support development of urban planning and infrastructure in India.
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