Rebuilding Diplomatic Ties with Nepal

Even before assuming Prime Minister’s office, Narendra Modi’s stint of inviting the SAARC heads for the swearing in ceremony bedazzled the political circles. Certainly the winds of change seem to blow quite hard.  Firstly, Modi’s seminal address on the world-platform during the BRIC summit and his own friendly missions to Bhutan last month and the most recent visit to Himalayan neighbour, Nepal. The new government is intent on shoring up its influence against the burgeoning influence of the Asian giant China. After little more than two months of assuming power, he has been in the business of fostering diplomatic relationships with different nations. India witnessed surge in diplomatic activity in less than a month of Modi becoming prime minister, foreign minister of China arrived in India followed by John Kerry’s US foreign secretary last week.

With his first bilateral visit to tiny country of Bhutan, last month India sent out a message that strengthening ties with smaller neighbouring countries is of utmost priority in its foreign policy strategy. The visit to Nepal after a gap of 17 years and a joint commission meeting held after a gap of 23 years signalled the beginning of re-arrangement between the two nations. In an effort to enhance India’s ties strategically, a bilateral visit to Myanmar is on cards. Incidentally all the three nations share boundary with India and China and forging a bond of friendship and cooperation is strategically important.

India has long standing cultural, economic, linguistic, spiritual and religious ties with Nepal.  There were closer people to people relations as well. Nepalese partisans had participated in India’s independence movement and even their combat troops were recruited in India post independence and during the annexation of princely states. Cultural affinities and familial ties fostered the spirit of fraternity between the nations. Often, closeness and similarities breed contempt.

Nepal’s attitude towards India is twofold ranging from suspicion to excitement. A former bureaucrat in his article once quoted that: India- Nepal relationships are constantly being upset by insensitivity and blundering on the part of India and hypersensitivity and misunderstanding on the part of Nepal. Suspicion stems from the fact that India’s dubious interference in the political affairs of Nepal during the Maoist coup which ended after signing of 12-point Agreement by the Seven Party Alliance (SPA) and Maoists in New Delhi in 2005. Another was the Constitutional Coup of 2008 led by King Gyanendra that pulled out monarchy triumphantly and rolled in democratic process under the comprehensive Peace Agreement. People of Nepal believed that India acted as bully. These were the periods when India’s ties with the Nepal began to fester. Excitement both among the people and political parties due to shared religious believes.

 

India- Nepal Treaty of Peace and Understanding of 1950 form the bed rock of the special relationship with Nepal wherein Nepalese nationals enjoy unparalleled advantages in India. It allows them to avail all the facilities and opportunities on par with Indian citizens. Nearly 6 million Nepalese work and live in India. To facilitate quicker and cheaper transfer of remittances, a robust Electronic Fund Transfer Mechanism (EFT) was introduced jointly by the Nepal SBI and State Bank of India in 2008. With the dragon power looming over the Himalayan Nation it is important for India to resurrect friendly ties. To lay ground work, Sushma Swaraj’s visited Nepal earlier to discuss the crucial hydropower development, an area where apprehensions are high.  Nepal has grave mistrust regarding India’s help in tapping the hydropower and fear India’s monopoly over its waters. Water policy is of paramount importance as Nepal has huge water resources Nepal but failed to tap less 1% of the potential. The Mahakali river projects was inked in 1997, under which Pancheswar project was planned to irrigate huge swathes of land and generate 6,400 MW of power. It was scheduled to be completed within 7 years; 17 years hence there is no sign of project report.

Indian investors constitute nearly 40% of foreign investments in Nepal but now Chinese investments have surpassed them. Chinese tourists to Nepal have almost doubled in the past three years and it has plans of extending the rail connection to the borders of Nepal. Nepal has started yielding to China by significantly checking the anti-Tibetan activities on its land. Nepal, a land locked country sandwiched between two Asian giants plays a pro-china card with India and pro-India card with China to avert any long term impending consequences. The porous 1850km long Indo-Nepalese border in the recent past has emerged as hub and safe passage for the anti-Indian elements. It is now a bone of contention since terrorists are barging into inner corridors of India via Nepal.

Nepal is an important strategic partner and India expressed its openness to revamp certain old treaties and promised investments in new sectors to rejuvenate ties. In an effort to woo Nepal, India offered credit line of $ 1 billion for development of infrastructure and extended solid support for development of Highways, Infoways and Transways or HIT, for improved connectivity. In his address to the Constitutent Assembly (CA), Modi accepted previous governments’ failure to forge a relationship of cooperation and trust building. He emphasised the fact that by helping Nepal, India is not doing charity but delivering its duty as a bigger power. Agreements were reached for bilateral cooperation in sectors like trade and industry, hydropower, agriculture and agro-processing, environment, tourism, education sports and culture. India expressed its resolve to launch the SAARC satellite which would help the SAARC nations in health, flood control, medicine and agriculture. Hope the emphatic diplomatic foreign policy adopted by the new government might help India to regain a stronghold in the South Asia region. 

 

 

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Untold Intricacies of Snooping

Last fortnight our newsiest and nosiest news channels have relentlessly debated on alleged bugging of a cabinet minister’s residence. Opposition minced no words and created a furore in the Parliament demanding a thorough investigation of the matter. Undeniably, bugging the house of minister in power is a matter of serious concern wherein nation was caught off the guard. Following the vociferous denials of government and the minister on the veracity of the claims, the matter ebbed out of media and public discussions for time being. But the case of bugging shone light on Rampart A agreement inked by previous government with US government giving them a free hand over surveillance of information in India. Even Edward Snowden’s leaks acknowledged that US government has been snooping over the activities of six political organisations world over including BJP. A classical document released by the Washington Post has later confirmed that BJP was NSA’s authorised target. This contentious issue therefore necessitates a prompt and strictest scrutiny on the issues of snooping by a foreign government. It is incumbent at this stage to evaluate the magnitude of the snooping and its impact on country’s security.

Against this back ground, it’s interesting to deliberate on the bugging devices often implanted in official residences and work places for spying. These constitute the first line of snooping. Expeditious advancements in the field of information technology have resulted in development of sophisticated devices that are tipped to emerge as weapons of modern day warfare. The miraculous miniature chips, the bloodline of computers are now readied to cause disasters of humongous proportions. The arsenal of the modern day coded wars is computer bugs.

In the present technological era, real world began emigrating into software-lined innards of computer. Life without any of the latest gadgets is practically inconceivable. As a consequence the market potential for fixing the mistakes of the software embedded in gadgets has gained enormous prominence. What does a bug, in computer technology really means and how it works? All the software developed to carry out a specific task would invariably contain certain flaws. The real crux of developing bugs lies in skilfully looking for these flaws. Meticulously intelligent and skilful individuals identify the major flaws overlooked by creators. They locate the vulnerability or simply put a zero-day which is serious enough to be a security problem and is previously unknown. Zero-day refers to bug’s freshness and means that the bug has been in public domain for zero days and hence no one tried to fix it. It has great commercial potential. People expend their brilliance to use this bug either for constructive purposes like selling back to the software maker who splurges money to use the bug for upgrading the software. Government agencies lap up these bugs and covertly use them for espionage. If a criminals buy them in black market, they use for stealing trade secrets or personal information of rival party. Owing to its huge offensive potential trading of bugs is unregulated. Its marketing potential is global and eventually it is used for devious purposes or for upgrading newer of software alike. Taking this cue, expert hackers are trying to make bugs more nasty and invasive and touting their superiority about their technical capabilities.

On a positive front, big soft ware companies are now finding it cost-effective to buy their own bugs to fix any issues with the new software recently launched by them. In 2010, Google chrome has set a new trend in this direction by offering rewards for the vulnerabilities in their software. Others who followed the suit were Microsoft and Facebook which announced a bounty of $100,000 and $1.5 billion respectively as payoff the hackers. Similarly the potential for abuse of bugs is also high. Verizon reported that 22% of data breaches in the year 2013 were the cases of cyber espionage operations caused by bugs targeted by hackers. Unlike in other crimes, pinning down source of the bug and intent of attack is difficult to find. Destructive capacity of the bugs is enormous and governments are now waking up to this Franko monster. Unlike the trade of jet fighters and artillery the trade of vulnerabilities is not regulated. To this end, under the Wassenaar arrangement, an international agreement which governs arms sales among US and 40 other participating countries was recently modified to include the “intrusion software” under the list of restricted dual-use technologies. But legally binding statutes have not been drafted.  With unrestrained availability of zero days in black market, the scenario of terror outfits or pot dictators derailing the public infrastructure is really high.

An ideal situation would be one where software is perfected offering complete security. But as we aspire for powerful computers capable of executing complex tasks there would be more security issues, hence the software needs to be more complex. Higher the complexity more will be the number of bugs. Thus, it has become a vicious circle. Further, as we hitch on several gadgets like tablets, phone each with different configuration of hardware and software the situation is becoming unmanageable. Further as the latest and upgraded versions of the operating systems enter the market, the software is burdened with the task of supporting the older versions as well when hooked onto older devices. Thus, the saga of new class of vulnerabilities will continue to prop-up. Fixing vulnerabilities seems to be an unending trail.

Snowden leaks also reveal that US government has expended $25.1 million for covert purchases of software vulnerabilities suggesting that they buy Zero-days and subsequently roll them on internally. The leaks also inform that US has already mounted offensive operations against China, Russia, Iran and North Korea. Unlike other kinds of invasive wars, extricating personal data and intellectual property in stealth operations remain undetected for immediately.  But the threat seems to be constant and pervasive in this new millennium.

Some notorious cyber attacks have already wrecked havoc- Stuxnet, 2009 a joint operation of US and Israel aimed at mining the Uranium enrichment program of Iran. The Zero day vulnerabilities infected the Microsoft Windows machines and subsequently infected computers worldwide. In 2009 China based hackers launched Aurora operation on internet explorer to attack Google, Adobe and other major US companies. It also spied on human rights activists and stole intellectual property. Russian operation Black hole of 2010-13 attacked all personal computers. In 2013 hackers introduced vulnerabilities in Java which installed sophisticated malware on Facebook   employees’ laptops.

Akin to double-edged knife, intrusive software evolved into private arsenal threatening to shackle the foundations of the paradise of information. Covertly, the million chips which cradled us into life of comfort are turning monstrously dangerous. With governments actively engaging in these unobtrusive wars, matters of internal security and sovereignty become grievously important.  India reckoned as prodigal nurturing ground of software personnel would be ridiculed if it succumbs to the elitist sneaky technology of the west.

Bio-Invaders

Similar to bickering of the Social scientists pertaining the issue of migration conservation biologists are at war of words over the migration of flora and fauna from their native place of origin to exotic lands. These alien or migrating species have different patterns of adaptation in the new lands. In some cases, migrating species remained innocuous and often failed to proliferate into sustainable populations and thus perished. Others have become beneficial.  While those of which that managed to colonise were incorporated into existing ecosystem and were responsible for change balance of the native ecosystem. Few of them started out-competing the native competitors and emerged as greater threats to the local dwellers.

Invasive species are the alien or exotic or introduced non native species that have brought about a significant change in the native ecosystem which they began to colonize. Such species can be plants, animals, microbes and other organisms which have migrated to new niches through natural migration or by allied human activities. Invasion Biology encompasses study of these organisms and the process of species invasion. This discipline has recently registered a sudden spurt of interest among biologists with its own journals, academic centres and graduate programs.

In an article published in Nature recently, a thorough investigation of such species has been clearly elucidated. The process of migration is as old as the human civilisation itself. Globalisation and rapid economic activity has enhanced the movement of men and material across different continents. Conservation biologists are now seriously concerned over the issue of invasion/spread of species both flora and fauna. While a majority of them view that new change is an impending threat to the native ecosystem, other believe that theory of evolution would eventually balance out any change. The later are least intimidated by the enormous expansion of foreign species.

The term invasion implies any act that infringes or intrudes the native state. Human beings are the most invasive species that ever in habited the earth. In the long course of evolution this species began its journey from the inner fringes of African continent and slowly spread to each and every corner of the world and to every possible kind of climate and colonised the new places. At every new place of settlement, they have successfully displaced the native habitants and often led to their obliteration. Over the course of time, humans shaped the global ecosystem by pumping green-house gases upending the delicate balance of the very earth we live. The epitome of all invasive species- human beings are now imperilled by the swarming invasive species.

History is replete of examples where introduced species have changed the balance of the native ecosystem. The most significant invasions have occurred during Pliocene Epoch (5.3 to 2.6 million years ago) after the formation of narrow isthmus between North and South America.  It was believed that migration several predators from North America in this period had led to extinction of many South American mammalian populations. Subsequently, during the course of exploration of new lands, men intentionally or unintentionally had played a significant role in introduction of alien organisms into the new lands. Particularly Australia and Oceania were hard hit during the early days. In the past two centuries North America is greatly affected by the invasive species.

The introduction of Zebra mussel, a filter-feeding mollusc;  native of Aral, Black and Caspian seas into the Great Lakes and other rivers causing severe economic and ecological losses. These were carried in the ballast water by the ocean going ships and spread beyond Great Lakes and to all other rivers by attaching themselves to the bottom of the boats. Now, these began out-competing the native species for food. They grow rapidly and clog the water in-take pumps of the power plants and also remove the aquatic algae.  Power plants are now spending $800,000 a year to monitor and control it. Similarly, Asian carp and Silver carp native of south East Asia got introduced into the rivers of Mississippi by the fish farmers in 1960’s. These are voracious filter feeders and are competing with native marine life for food incurring $200 million loss annually. These constitute nearly 90% of biomass in some stretches in Mississippi.

The Burmese Python native of South East Asia got introduced into the wetlands of South Florida by the Hurricane Andrew. It now threatens the dominance of the American Alligator. Growing to 6ft it predates on Key Largo Wood rat and wood stork as a result the numbers of both have declined significantly. Appalled by its huge damage, government is organising workshops for volunteers in this region to capture pythons. Giant African Snail native of East Africa which got accidentally introduced into forests of Florida has become a new threat. It eats more than 500 kinds of plants and carries a parasite that can cause meningitis in humans.

Brazilian pepper trees were imported as ornamentals in mid-1800, now dominate 700,000 acres in Florida. Its huge canopy shuts out sunlight to its competitors consequently out-competing the natives. Species of Feral hogs, Lion fish, Asian Long-horned beetles, snake head fish, Cuban tree frog and emerald ash border continue to excise their control in the new habitats threatening to destroy the composition of the native population. These invasive species are now treated by conservationists as enemy combatants in a biological war. Government is expending huge amounts of money to prevent, control and eradicate these species. It was estimated that 50,000 of alien species are in US out competing native flora and fauna.

But against this background, some scientists believe that nature has been never balanced and often there isn’t any particular trait that makes an alien inherently bad or native species inherently good. Sometimes the distinction between native and alien is arbitrary. Scientists believe that in the age of globalisation, it is impossible to guard the migration of species. To sum up, nativeness has little intrinsic value while spread of invasiveness can increase the diversity. But on a different note, just as globalisation resulted in spread of brands like Mc Donald’s and Walmart around the world, unchecked invasiveness might lead to homogeneity.  In the course of evolution the epithet of survival of the fittest always reigned supreme. Even in the era of Global Swarming it will wield its power in restructuring the global ecosystem.

 

 

 

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The Threshold of Indian Science

The budget 2014 was subjected to intense scrutiny following the electoral promise of acche din. But expectations had to be tapered days before presentation of the budget as Finance Minister Arun Jaitley hinted at cutting down some expenditure to cope up with the two-year economy slowdown. Still the budget was adeptly dissected to unfold the repercussions on common man. Indian scientific community too reviewed the provisions allocated to understand the commitment of new government towards development scientific research. Science and Technology received 362.69 billion rupees in the budget, a 4% increase from previous year as against the existing inflation at 8%. Although there were concerns about frugal spending affecting some of the international collaborations, majority of the scientists were optimistic that S&T would receive a shot in arm when expenditures would be revised based on midterm revisions of requirements in September. Also, budget has opened up new vistas for applications in medicine, agriculture, defence, information technology, space engineering and affordable housing.

As per new budgetary allocation, Department of Science and Technology (DST) and Space programmes witnessed an 11% and 6% rise, Department of Biotechnology (DBT) and health received a modest increase of 0.9% and earth science 0.5%. Government has also announced funding for two agricultural biotechnology research hubs, a national centre for Himalayan Studies, huge solar power plants, five IITs, five IIMs and four institutes similar to AIIMS and canal side-solar parks that would produce at least 1 megawatt of electricity. Moreover, a special 10,000 Crore fund has been earmarked to assist start-ups and bigger innovations.

While the budget spells austerity for science, Thomas Reuters report on Indian science infuses a sense of optimism. It casts light on the impressive achievements of Indian science and its policy literature has referred India as “sleeping giant” of science. Clearly there are signs of science taking a new turn. During the past three years 31 state and UT have created innovation councils headed by senior scientists. Particularly there is a discernible change in scientific community, which yearns to convert knowledge into wealth. This led to enormous increase in the academic-enterprise tie ups registering a phenomenal increase of start-ups on campus itself.

As we fathom into the strides made by Indian science, various milestone directives the process of structuring Indian science were the Scientific Policy Resolution (1958), Technology Policy Statement (1983), Science and Technology Policy (2003) are to be acknowledged. Since independence government strived consistently to build infrastructure both physical and human for research. Several scientific institutions like CSIR (Council of Scientific and Industrial Research) and IIT’s were created during the initial phase of development. This further paved way for the genesis of departments of space, atomic energy and defence research. This phase of construction ended in 1980 after which research was in doldrums for two decades due to lack of proper funding.

Indian science entered a new era in 2001 when funding for research and education became priority and allocations increased dramatically. Although there was a brief dip in recession years but it was not significant. The report indicates a substantial increase in the annual output of the scientific publications reaching 3% of the World output. It is interesting to note that the research trajectory is rising sharply. Chemistry with 6.3% of research output contributes to majority of scientific research followed by agriculture science, material science, pharmacology & Toxicology and Engineering & Technology. However, while the output increased exponentially, the percentage of highly cited papers hover around 0.5% much lower than the world average. Report states that India fares badly in terms of international collaborative output and appears less connected than all the G8 nations. In terms of creation of science and technology over the past decade India improved significantly but next to China.

In terms of innovations, report states that an average of 5,900 patent applications are filed annually. Of them nearly two-thirds are foreign filings seeking protection for their innovations in Indian market. Domestic innovation is pegged at 29% since 2005. India’s major contribution towards innovation is in field of agro-chemicals, technology and pharmacology sectors.

India is currently trying to gain lost ground with impressive achievements in fields of physics, engineering, psychology and social sciences. The major stumbling block that demands immediate assiduity is disproportionate investments relative to GDP in science. Since 2001, government has been promising to increase R&D investments to 2% of GDP as against the existing 0.9%. Poor funding still plagues the research in India. This benchmark is found to be essential for to boost up scientific research in the country.  Further, to grow into a research based economy a country needs to have a significant number of research personnel. Unfortunately India has severe crunch of technical expertise in science. While all developed economies have an optimum population of research personnel, India is at the bottom of list with 164 personnel per million as against the recommended number of 1000-1200. Unlike the private sector of foreign countries which contributes to two-thirds of R&D, in India it accounts for only one-third of the research.

India is known to be traditional home of learning, innovation and knowledge. During 1980 and late 1990’s India’s scientific output was static while other countries grew rapidly. Now India is trying to make up for the last time by setting up new institutes wherein young talent can nurture their careers in science and catapult research. India is at the brink of ushering into a new phase of world-class research and any significant pull can rejuvenate the fledging scientific aspirations of the country. Now it is time to fathom the new government’s resolve to steer the country into the greener pastures of more scientific and technological innovation.

 

 

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Common Wealth Games 2014

Common Wealth Games (CWG) reminds most Indians of the notorious CWG scam, 2010.  While the games paved way for restructuring of the dilapidated infrastructure of the capital city with the relentless services of Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) receiving major boost, it ensured drubbing of congress party in Delhi. CWG at Delhi were marred by several controversies wherein India earned poor reputation for its incomplete and timed out preparations. But the games will be forever cherished by Indian sports freaks due to the excellent performance of Indian athletes who finished second after Australia.

CWG is back again after 4 years and the venue for 20^th CWG is Glasgow, Scotland. The 11-day long sporting event, third after Olympics and Asian will be officially inaugurated on July 23^rd. Scotland previously hosted the games in 1970 and 1986 in Edinburg. Mascot for the games is Clyde, a thistle, named after the river that flows through Glasgow. Nearly 4900 players from 71 Common wealth countries would contest in 17 sports categories. The underlining values of the games are unity, equality and destiny.

Common Wealth group includes all the states which were territories of the British Empire. It functions as an intergovernmental organisation and operates by consensus of member states. Members have no legal obligations towards each other. But they are bound by the values of democracy, human rights and human law enshrined in the Common Wealth Charter and the ties are fostered by the quadrennial Common Wealth Games. Zimbabwe was the only country whose membership was suspended in 2002 on grounds of human rights violation and misgovernment. Gambia erstwhile member of the group has retracted its membership recently. Common wealth constitutes nearly a quarter of World’s area and spans all continents. They account for third of World’s population and represent 17% of World GDP.

Leaders of the countries meet once in two years at Common Wealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) to discuss issues of mutual concern and agree on collective policies and initiatives. The group was formally constituted following the London Declaration of 1949 wherein member countries are recognised as free and equal. The Queen Elizabeth II is the head of Common Wealth. She is head of the state of other 16 countries also known as the Common Wealth Realms. Common Wealth Secretariat facilitates consultation and cooperation among the members. It also represents Common Wealth as Observer at the UN General Assembly. Due to their shared culture and heritage common wealth countries don’t treat each other as foreign. Hence while engaging in bilateral meeting they exchange High Commissioners instead of Ambassadors. In Caribbean to honour the spirit of the group, Common Wealth citizens are granted right to vote.

The first CWG were held in Hamilton, Canada in 1930 where 400 athletes from 11 countries participated. Earlier these games were referred to as British Common Wealth Games but were rechristened as CWG in the year 1978. Much like the Olympic Torch Relay the Queen’s Baton travels around 70 countries before reaching the host nation. Within the host country, the torch would tour 4000km in 400 cities and towns for 40 days before being handed over for the final inauguration ceremony. This year para-sports have registered phenomenal participation and they are staged concurrently with the regular sporting events. A 215- strong Indian contingent for CWG will be led by Vijay Kumar Olympic Silver Medallist. India aims to seek a top three finish after its unprecedented medal haul in 2010. Unfortunately, team India may not be able to repeat a 2010 magic as Archery, Tennis were scrapped and medal events in shooting and Wrestling events  were reduced in Glasgow games.

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A Balanced Foreign Policy Towards Israeli Conflict Justifiable?

A minor embroilment kicked in across Gaza with kidnapping and murdering of the three Israeli teenagers by Hamas militants. It spiralled into a conflict resulting in unabated firing across the Gaza strip. Operation Protective Edge was launched by Israel on July 8^th in retaliation. So far 216 innocent civilians have succumbed and more than 1600 are wounded. UN estimates that nearly 1570 homes were destroyed and more than 18,000 displaced. Life in Gaza has come to a standstill. Egypt, the head of the Arab League, initiated cease-fire proposal. Israel accepted the peace truce offered by Egypt and promised to demilitarise Gaza strip from rocket attacks. But Hamas, Palestine militants refused the peace truce. They reasoned that the proposal was not discussed with them and felt that it suited Israel more. Thus, the unprecedented rocket attacks across Gaza have resumed again. Israel has now mobilised thousands of troops to Gaza strip amid speculation of ground invasion. Several countries have strongly condemned the Israeli offensive and civil rights groups expressed strong protests over the killing of innocent civilians.

Amidst raging West Asian controversies NDA led government intends to tread cautiously on the simmering Arab- Israel conflict. On July 10^th MEA has issued a statement expressing deep concern over “the steep escalation of violence between Israel and Palestine with heavy air strikes in Gaza strip that resulted in tragic loss of civilian lives and damage to the property”. India’s even-handed approach evoked a sense of disappointment among both the warring parties. While the Israelis anticipated India to take a firm stance between an aggressor and defender, Palestinians believed that India would strongly condemn the rocket attacks of its nuclear power rival. Meanwhile, as Gaza bleeds series of protests rock the Kashmir Valley and normal life has been hit by bands.

After independence India harboured a non-aligned, pro-Arab approach and consistently supported the cause of Palestine self determination in the state of Israel since 1948. India intended to boost its relationship with Muslim countries post partition and maintained friendly relationship with Palestine. It even recognised the Palestine statehood declaration in 1988. Even after 60 years, the rivalry between Israel and Palestine failed to seize and still lock horns over the issue of self-determination. India refrained from engaging with Israel for the fear of worsening relationships with other traditionally friendly Arab nations. Also, Pakistan would leave no stone unturned to mislead Arab conglomeration.

But India’s pro- Arab approach received a major jolt when Pakistan blocked India from joining the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). India made a strategic change in its diplomatic policy and beefed up its relationships with Israel in 1992. India- Israel’s friendship received a new lease for life during the regime of P.V. Narasimha Rao who deftly managed to have defence ties closed doors. Later the NDA government sealed several defence deals with Israel. India’s best ally in the West Asia now is Israel and with its third largest reserves of shale gas, it is set to become oil independent too.

Israel is largest weapons supplier to India after Russia with business worth USD 9 billion. It has supplied long range radar for the anti-ballistic missile defence system and Air –borne Early Control Warning Systems (AWACS) aircraft. In the wake of growing tensions within the South Asian region India has to upgrade its bunkers and enhance the battle readiness of the troops. Now both countries have economic, military and strategic relationships. Together they are negotiating on extensive bilateral free trade pact and focus areas are information technology, biotechnology and agriculture. India can barely ignore the keenness of Israeli government to rejuvenate friendly relationship as India can immensely benefit from the highly advanced military technology and hardware. India’s PSLV-C 25 has recently hoisted one of its satellites too.

Modi government is doing a balancing act and thwarted the attempts of opposition to pass a resolution. The on going crisis in Gaza strip was first raised by the PDP leader Mehabooba Mufti in Lok Sabha but government was reluctant to make any comments. Yesterday Rajya Sabha was adjourned following the persistent uproar of the opposition to roll out a resolution condemning Israeli offensive. Government didn’t succumb to appeals of the opposition, thwarting all attempts of non-NDA parties to appease the minorities. Further, the discussion were scrubbed reiterating that  still 39 Indians are under captivity in Iraq and any discourteous statement might endanger their lives. It is widely known that NDA always comprehended Israeli battle for their motherland. Just like India, Israel is enveloped by belligerent countries on all sides and having been a victim of jihadi attacks inspired by Pakistan, India would fully sympathise Israel.

 

Considering India’s national and geopolitical interests into account, it is compelled to hold onto an even-handed diplomatic approach.  Firstly, India is oil dependent country and relies largely on the Arab countries for its burgeoning energy needs. Any deviation in current foreign policy towards the Arab world would have a drastic effect on the oil supplies. Secondly, a vast majority of Indian Diaspora are working in the Gulf countries which account to 49% of the remittances. Thirdly, India is home to third largest population of Muslims and a disgruntled minority can be a grave internal threat.  Arab leaders are despotic rulers and would never support India on Kashmir issue still India as to maintain friendly relationship in view of regional security and posterity. Before bringing in any changes in the foreign policy towards West Arab World, India has to strategize to become more self reliant to meet its energy requirements. Till then, India has to inevitably maintain a balanced approach. Allying with the most scientifically advanced and technologically sound country like Israel, India can leap ahead to newer pastures of advancement. But a rational diplomatic stance could offer succour to an oil-dependent country like India.

 

 

 

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BRICS Summit: India's Agenda

Though the FIFA world cup, 2014 ended yesterday with much grandeur and fanfare, Brazil continues to hit the headlines. The 6^th BRICS summit, a meeting of the five developing economies- Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa is scheduled to be held in the cities of Fortaleza and Brasilia, Brazil on July 15 -17. The summit assumes greater significance as it will be first occasion when Prime Minister Narendra Modi would flag off multilateral talks with World leaders on International platform. The meeting also marks the launch of BRICS Bank and the Contingent Reserve Arrangement (CRA), touted to challenge the domination of the Western nations in the global economic arena.  The proposal for BRICS Bank was initiated during the 5^th BRICS summit at Durban in 2013 at a time when emerging countries have been deeply affected by tapering of Quantitative Easing (QE) by US. This resulted in major depreciation in currencies of developing nations.

Often toughest lessons are learnt following major destructions and exacerbated financial crisis. America learnt the need for economic cooperation the hard way after its failure to cope up with the losses of the World War II and the economic depression of 1928. As a result America with its allies evolved a management plan, Bretton Woods agreement which resulted in genesis of two international financial institutions- World Bank and International Monetary Fund with key main focus on reconstruction of infrastructure after World War II. Now after 70 years of signing the agreement, launch of BRICS Bank is conceived to be a symbolic challenge to the existing global monetary structure.

Till now the World Bank and IMF have been controlled by Americans and Europeans who have been representative heads. The rich countries consequentially had greater leverage and say. Both the institutions are under severe criticism from developing countries for promoting the Euro-Atlantic economic agenda. With the evolving global trends, the contribution of the developing nations towards global economy has become cognizable. BRICS countries with a consumer base of over 3 billion account for 40% of population and contribute more than 25% of global GDP. Faced with the daunting challenges of the growing economy and its needs, BRICS realised the need for opening up new vistas to tackle the myriad challenges of the 21^st Century through establishment of credit cum financial institution. BRICS bank has thus been a great effort in this direction.

The new development bank, yet to be named is an effort in the direction of developing an alternate institution that would fund long term investments in infrastructure projects and sustainable development projects in BRICS and other emerging economies. It will supplement the existing efforts of the multilateral and regional financial institutions also for global growth and development. Such an institution on long term can enhance the influence of BRICS and other developing countries in the international developmental architecture.  The Summit would formally inaugurate a BRICS Bank, whose fund will constitute the $10 billion paid-in-capital (each country providing $2 billion over period of 7 years) and additional $ 40 billion to be paid- upon request and a Contingent Reserve Arrangement (CRA) of $100 billion.

CRA is coordinated central bank fund aimed to provide mutual liquidity in the event of crisis.  This fund would act as an emergency coffer if nation suffers from risk of currency depreciation. This would complement the existing financial safety net and established international arrangements as additional line of defence. Apart from the BRICS nations, UN member countries may also participate but their total share wouldn’t exceed 45%. Bank would be open for lending from 2016. The maximum amount of corpus fund of $41 billion is pitched by China and minimum of $5 by South Africa. India, Brazil and Russia are chipping in $18 billion from their foreign exchange reserves. The genesis of such a bank gained momentum due to the growing rifts between the US and Russia over the Crimean issue where nations have reiterated their deftness to impose sanctions against Russia.

Though the World Bank focuses on making huge chunk of investments in infrastructure projects, a study reported a gap of $ 1trillion in low and middle income countries between investments made in infrastructure and what is needed. The demand for infrastructure is growing. Existing multilateral development banks could close in the gap to a tune of only $40 to $60 billion. Financial experts’ view that time has come for a development bank for BRICS which fund the infrastructure projects from the hard-earned savings from the emerging and developing countries for more productive uses rather than funding bubbles in the rich-country housing markets.

BRICS Bank is aims to mobilize investments towards infrastructure development projects in developing countries. As countries graduate from the primary to secondary to tertiary sector-based economies infrastructure needs to expand. Studies suggest movement of roughly 2 billion people to urban regions implying a great need for major investments in urban infrastructure. Nearly 1.4 billion people in BRICS don’t have access to electricity, 0.9 billion don’t have access  to clean drinking water and 2.6 billion lack access to sanitation. Infrastructure investments are thus needed to improve the quality of living and accrue development without deviating from environment sustainability and climate resilience.

Existence of BRICS Bank will strengthen the voice of developing and emerging economies on global development and financial architecture. Apart from laying strong financial foundations in these countries, it would help in strengthening ties between culturally diverse nations. India and China are both competing to exert a greater influence on BRICS.  China with more economic clout is rather aggressive in its campaign and keen on assuming the leadership role. All nations except Brazil are competing hard to host the bank head quarters in their sovereign territories and to clinch initial presidency for tenure of five years.

For India stakes at summit are rather high. India under astute leadership of Modi should aspire to utilise this platform to play a crucial role in deepening integration between BRICS nations and foster cooperation. In wake of exiting American combat forces from tumultuous Afghanistan and the looming crisis of large scale fraud in highly contested Presidential elections. A high level diplomatic dialogue with China and Russia can be highly beneficial for the regional peace. A meeting with Chinese counterpart on the spate of recent incursions and stepping up trade would greatly enhance the Sino-Indian relationship. Finally, renewing a propitious relationship with the South American giant in this occasion would greatly stabilise India’s interests and commitments towards the BRICS.