India and the World | India Writes

India ready to shape Indian Ocean, Blue Revolution: Modi

March 16, 2015March 16, 2015 - by India Writes Network

The Indian Ocean is critical to the future of the world. This Ocean bears two-thirds of the world’s oil shipments, one-third of its bulk cargo; and half of its container …

New bounce in India-Sri ties: 4 pacts, $318 million for railways, currency swap

March 13, 2015March 13, 2015 - by India Writes Network

Imparting a renewed momentum to their bilateral ties, India and Sri Lanka have signed four agreements in areas of visa, customs, youth development and culture during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s maiden visit to the island country.
Mr Modi also pledged support for making Trincomalee into a petroleum hub and announced that New Delhi will provide a fresh Line of Credit of up to $ 318 million for the development of the railways sector in Lanka. India also agreed to a ‘Currency Swap Agreement’ of $1.5 billion to help keep the Sri Lankan economy stable.
Mr Modi held wide-ranging talks with Sri Lankan President MaithripalaSirisena in Colombo on March 13 that saw the two leaders charting a roadmap for galvanising their multifaceted ties. The four pacts, signed after the talks, included providing facility of travelling without visa to diplomats, cooperation in customs, youth development, and for establishing a Rabindranath Tagore museum.
The India-Sri Lanka relations had languished during the last few years of the MahindaRajapaksa presidency due to his overtly pro-China policies. Mr Sirisena underlined his intention known of building robust relations with New Delhi by making India his first foreign visit within weeks of taking charge as the president of the island nation.

Delhi-Colombo Bonding: New Frontiers

March 13, 2015March 13, 2015 - by Manish Chand

New Beginnings, New Hopes and New Horizons.
These expressions may sound like rhetorical hyperboles to some, but summarise the essence of the current transformational moment in relations between India and Sri Lanka, which has acquired a new bounce and energy after the formation of the new government in Colombo in January this year.
All eyes in the region will be on the meeting between Mr Modi and Mr Sirisena as they unveil an ambitious roadmap for multi-pronged acceleration of bilateral ties across diverse areas, including trade and investment, development cooperation, defence cooperation and reconstruction of the island nation.
With the new government in Colombo upbeat about dovetailing the India story to that of the island’s unfolding resurgence, the sky is virtually the limit for India-Sri Lanka relations.
Expect new doors to open up in this time-tested relationship.

India Recalibrates its Indian Ocean Strategy

March 12, 2015March 13, 2015 - by India Writes Network

The new Indian government, probably for the first time, seems to be recalibrating its stance towards adopting a structured policy towards the Indian Ocean Region (IOR), which hitherto carried no more significance than an anagrammatic similarity between the region and the country. The pre-election promise of the Sagar Mala Project in BJP manifesto, the push to demilitarise the Indian Ocean (IO) through the Galle Dialogue in 2014, Prime Minister’s heightened focus on its littoral neighbours, and most recently Prime Minister Modi’s visit to three island countries (Seychelles, Mauritius and Sri Lanka), which did not figure prominently in India’s regional geopolitical calculus, corroborate India’s intended policy seriousness towards the IOR.

India’s game-changing move: $500 million for Mauritius

March 12, 2015March 16, 2015 - by India Writes Network

In a game-changing move that provides fresh ballast to New Delhi’s Indian Ocean maritime diplomacy, India has unveiled $500 million as concessional Line of Credit to Mauritius for a host of infrastructure projects as the two countries signed five agreements, including a key pact on ocean economy.

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi met his Mauritian counterpart Anerood Jugnauth on March 11 during the second leg of his three-nation visit.

“I consider our security cooperation to be a cornerstone of our strategic partnership. We intend to quickly build the petroleum storage and bunkering facility in Mauritius,” Mr Modi said after the talks.

Mauritius looms large in New Delhi’s enhanced Indian Ocean diplomacy matrix. Mauritius’ then Prime Minister Navinchandra Ramgoolam was the only non-SAARC leader to be invited for the swearing-in ceremony of Prime Minister Modi in May 2014.

Mr Modi has bene honoured by being invited as the chief Guest at the National Day celebrations of Mauritius on March 12, a historic day that also marks the launch of the salt satyagraha by Mahatma Gandhi 85 years ago. In the morning, he has extended his wishes to the citizens of Mauritius.

India and Mauritius: Oceanic Partners

March 11, 2015March 11, 2015 - by Manish Chand

It’s a multi-dimensional relationship that remains embedded in a rich shared past, but continues to pulsate in the living present and points to a shining future. Entwined by history, culture, democratic values and intimate ancestral ties, the spirit and sounds of India are omnipresent and resonant in Mauritius. From the Aparvasi Ghat, where the first batch of Indian indentured labourers came more than 180 years ago to work on sugar plantations to the shining Cyber Tower in Port Louis, the journey and transformation of Mauritius into a modern, confident and resurgent nation is organically linked with Indians and the India Story.
It’s a multi-dimensional relationship that remains embedded in a rich shared past, but continues to pulsate in the living present and points to a shining future. Entwined by history, culture, democratic values and intimate ancestral ties, the spirit and sounds of India are omnipresent and resonant in Mauritius. From the Aparvasi Ghat, where the first batch of Indian indentured labourers came more than 180 years ago to work on sugar plantations to the shining Cyber Tower in Port Louis, the journey and transformation of Mauritius into a modern, confident and resurgent nation is organically linked with Indians and the India Story.

Indian Ocean Diplomacy: Seychelles-India Connect

March 10, 2015March 10, 2015 - by Manish Chand

Think of Seychelles, and India always looms large in this enchanting archipelago country better known for beauty pageants, honeymooners and luxury holidays. Trade, Training, Technology, Temples and yes, Tata buses and tortoises… These are multiple strands that form the exquisite mosaic of contemporary relations between India and Seychelles, the 115-island archipelago country of haunting beauty. Fittingly, Seychelles forms the first destination of India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s three-nation voyage (March 10-14) to littoral states of the Indian Ocean, which also includes Mauritius and Sri Lanka. It’s an epic diplomatic odyssey as this is the first time an Indian prime minister will be travelling to three littoral countries and underlines the growing salience of the Indian Ocean in India’s diplomatic-strategic matrix and calculations. Prime Minister’s Modi trip will underscore Seychelles’ unique place in this configuration.

There have been many presidential visits from India to this African littoral nation, the last one being President Pratibha Patil’s trip to Seychelles in 2012, but this will be the first prime ministerial visit to this strategically located country after a gap of more than three decades. Mrs Indira Gandhi was the last Indian Prime Minister to visit Victoria in 1981.

Oceanic Diplomacy: High stakes in Modi’s Indian Ocean yatra

March 9, 2015March 9, 2015 - by Manish Chand

Amid the unfolding great game in the Indian Ocean and China’s increased assertiveness in the region, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi heads on a three-nation diplomatic odyssey to key littoral states, including Seychelles, Mauritius and Sri Lanka.

It’s a first of sorts as the Indian prime minister travels to three oceanic neighbours which are bound to India by history, shared culture and extensive defence ties.

Maritime security will be the overarching theme of Mr Modi’s three-nation visit as he seeks to bolster maritime cooperation with the three countries, which are crucial in India’s strategic scheme to secure sea lanes of communication (SLOC) in the Indian Ocean against attacks by pirates and terrorists.

The prime minister’s outreach to the country’s Indian Ocean neighbours will be closely watched in the region. Beijing will be specially watching the outcomes emerging from these summit meetings as it has relentlessly expanded its economic ties and influence in the Indian Ocean littoral countries New Delhi thinks to be falling in its sphere of influence.

But as Indian diplomats point out, India is not in a containment game, but is only looking to project the Indian Ocean as zone of peace and an ocean of opportunity through a closer web of economic and transport connectivity projects.

Swaraj in Sri Lanka: Transforming ties and China factor

March 7, 2015March 7, 2015 - by India Writes Network

The ongoing two-day visit of India’s External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj is the third bilateral high-level exchange in two months, and underlines a new vitality in multifarious relations between the two neighbours.
India’s foreign minister’s visit is aimed at setting the stage for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s trip to the island nation next week. The visit is the first by any Indian prime minister since Rajiv Gandhi’s trip in 1987. Mr Modi will be on a multi- city tour in Sri Lanka, visiting the Jaffna province as well as addressing the Sri Lankan parliament.
In the days to come, Sri Lanka shall have to do some tightrope walking to keep the investment flowing in from China, while tilting towards India. Amid the shifting geopolitics of the region, one can safely say that the new government in Colombo has begun course correction by underlining the centrality of New Delhi to Colombo’s national interests even as it pursues its economic ties with Beijing, albeit in a possibly attenuated manner.

Defying ban by India, BBC airs Nirbhaya documentary

March 5, 2015March 5, 2015 - by India Writes Network

Defying the pressure from Indian government to censor the controversial documentary on the December 16 gang rape, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) aired ‘India’s Daughter’ on March 4 for a global audience, saying that the documentary had handled the issue “responsibly”. However, in a concession, the BBC said it would not telecast the documentary in India.
The documentary is based on the traumas of a young physiotherapist, Nirbhaya (a pseudonym given to the victim), who was savagely gang-raped, tortured and killed by six men on a moving bus in the capital Delhi on December 16, 2012. It has ignited a blazing controversy in India for its inclusion of the interview of Mukesh Singh, one of the rapists.
It’s a chilling interview to watch: there is not a trace of remorse as he speaks about teaching a lesson to girls who wear wrong clothes and go to discos. “A decent girl won’t roam around at nine o’clock at night. A girl is far more responsible for rape than a boy,” he says. “Housework and housekeeping is for girls, not roaming in discos and bars at night doing wrong things, wearing wrong clothes. About 20% of girls are good.”