India and the World

Bridging trade deficit: Taking Chandni Chowk to China

- by India Writes Network

Narrowing India’s $37.85 billion trade deficit with China, a contentious issue between the two Asian giants, will take some out-of-the-box thinking, and greater consumer orientation. Here are some pointers on how it can be done.
A few weeks ago, as my wife Sumona was having a manicure at a nail salon in Shanghai, a thirty-something Chinese lady sitting in the next chair excitedly told her that she was simply in love with a handsome Indian star. Naturally, Sumona assumed it would be one of the Khans. “He has big eyes, a lovely smile, and is quite plump. So different from the skinny Chinese men! Look, I carry his picture on my phone,” she said. Pulling out a crystal-encrusted I-Phone 6, she showed the photo of a smiling Ram Kapoor.
Would you have ever imagined that Bade Achche Lagte Hain, a popular TV drama in India, could be so popular in China? Or that one of the most popular dance performances at last year’s Chinese New Year office parties was Jai Ho? Or that thousands of Chinese youth are enraptured by 3 Idiots (San Geshagua in Mandarin) because it reflects exactly the same kind of pressure that they experience?
The continued growth of both the Chinese market and consumer power offers Indian businesses myriad opportunities. Narrowing the trade gap is a political and economic commitment on both sides of the Himalaya. It’s up to Indian business to make the most of China’s booming consumer markets.

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Modi to Indian envoys: No balancing, India must lead

- by India Writes Network

No balancing or containment for India. Position India in the leadership role in the world. This was the overarching message of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to heads of Indian missions as he underlined the new template of proactive holistic diplomacy, which entails harnessing the global environment to enable India to play a leadership role, upgrading capacity to deal with new-age threats, promoting the country’s soft power and setting the tone for global climate change negotiations.
In an oblique critique of India’s hitherto defensive foreign policy, Mr Modi exhorted Indian envoys to shed “old mindsets” and help the country position itself in a leading role, rather than just a balancing force globally. The formulation will be specially scrutinised in China where the diplomatic-strategic establishment has often accused India of ganging up with the US and Japan to contain Beijing’s rise.
“The present global environment represents a rare opportunity, when the world is keen to embrace India, and India is moving forward with confidence,” Mr Modi said while inaugurating a four-day “Heads of Indian Missions” conference, which is themed “diplomacy with development. Around 120 envoys from Indian missions abroad have gathered in the Indian diplomat for brainstorming sessions on the future trajectory of India’s diplomacy, the first such meeting under the Narendra Modi government.

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Who will win Delhi? Modi stability mantra versus Kejriwal’s new politics

- by India Writes Network

All eyes are on the electrifying electoral battle for Delhi, and which way it will swing. On a sunny Saturday morning, Delhites queued up outside polling booths spread across the city of around 25 million people. There was a palpable sense of enthusiasm among voters, who were unanimous in their craving for a smart city, equipped with world-class infrastructure and higher standard of living.
By 3 pm, 51.15 per cent of 13 million voters had cast their ballots. Chief Election Commissioner H.S Brahma said he expected a 65-70 per cent voter turnout on February 7. 66 per cent had voted in the 2013 assembly elections. If opinion polls are to be believed, a few thousand votes may make a decisive difference.
The key issues in the Delhi polls are, according to the voters spoke by India Writes Network, indiawrites.org, access to uninterrupted electricity, decent health care, modern education, controlling inflation, encouraging sanitation drive and building infrastructure, strengthening women security, and increasing employment rate and raising living standard.
It would be fair to say that the Delhi elections have become a matter of prestige for Narendra Modi and Arvind Kejriwal. Delhi is the power centre of the country. A win or loss in Delhi for the BJP could strip Mr Modi of some of the halo of invincibility as his party has won most state elections and done exceedingly well in states like Jammu and Kashmir, where it had hitherto no presence.

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Smart diplomacy: India, Singapore to focus on smart cities, skills upgrade

- by Manish Chand

Think smart, and Act East. This twin mantra of the Narendra Modi government will be telescoped during Singapore President Tony Tan Keng Yam’s visit to India which will focus on spurring collaboration in smart cities, skill-building and enhancing two-way investment.
Singapore president’s February 8-11 trip to India marks a milestone and is part of the ongoing celebrations of 50 years of mutually nourishing diplomatic ties between the two countries.
The reform-minded India’s prime minister has created much excitement among Singapore’s political leadership and the business class. In May 2014, after the change of guard in New Delhi following the national elections, Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong congratulated Mr Modi on his election victory on Twitter and Facebook.
Smart cities and skills collaboration are the twin pillars of the new phase of cooperation between India and Singapore. Prime Minister Modi sees Singapore as a key partner in his pet project of building 100 smart cities in India. The forthcoming presidential visit will see some progress in firming up the contours of smart city cooperation. Singapore is also expected to be an important partner in the new Indian government’s skill development mission.

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Juggling US and China: Modi to visit Beijing

- by Manish Chand

In a delicate diplomatic waltz, after rolling out the red carpet for US President Barack Obama, India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to visit China by May, underlining the new Indian leader’s foreign policy of multi-alignment, which entails forging closer ties with the world’s leading power centres.
India’s External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, who is currently on a three-day trip to China, has told Indian journalists in Beijing that Mr Modi will visit China before the end of his first year in office. Government sources indicated that the visit is expected around April-early May.

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Is India firmly aligned with the US now?

- by India Writes Network

After the high profile summit with US President Barak Obama, has Prime Minister Narendra Modi placed India firmly in the US camp, much to the chagrin of the old foreign policy establishment in Delhi that reveled in the business of non-policy making under cover of non-alignment.At the outset, our so-called non-alignment was not really so, as we were clearly in the Soviet camp for reasons not entirely of our own making. Pandit Nehru was ideologically sympathetic to the Soviet Union while his daughter went a step further and cemented the relationship with Moscow with the Indo-Soviet treaty in 1971 prior to the launching of war to liberate East Pakistan. The fact that Nixon-Kissinger led America at that time was openly ’tilting’ in favour of Gen. Yahya Khan and towards Mao’s Communist China instead of a ‘socialist democracy’ in India was one of the contributing reasons for our alignment with the USSR. In fact, before signing the Indo-Soviet Treaty, Indira Gandhi went to London and Washington to seek their support to end the massacre in East Pakistan, but returned empty handed.

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