THE HINDU – CURRENT NOTE 11 APRIL
Aadhaar must for access to Survey of India maps
It is to ensure that only Indians reach the portal: Minister
•The Survey of India, the country’s oldest scientific organisation and official maker of maps, has set up a web portal called Nakshe that allows 3,000 of its 7,000 maps to be downloaded for free. The only caveat is that one would require an Aadhaar number for such access.
•The SoI maps —prepared for defence and civilian purposes — are considered a standard reference for the shape, extent and geographic features of the country.
•“Over the last year, the government has moved to making several services available through Aadhaar…this too is a major step forward,” Union Science Minister Harsh Vardhan said at a press conference to mark the 250th anniversary of the organisation’s founding, “The Aadhaar is to ensure that only Indians are able to access this portal.”
•In the last years, the government has passed orders to route a variety of citizen services — from scholarships to subsidies — to possessing an Aadhaar or Aadhaar enrolment number. The Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Bill, 2016 specifically says that the number can’t be used as proof of citizenship or domicile.
•The maps to be made available through the portal http://soinakshe.uk.gov.in/ will make it easier for residents of villagers and panchayats to readily access information, said Ashutosh Sharma, Secretary, Ministry of Science. Currently, organisations and people who want specific maps need to fill forms and sometimes visit the SoI. Several times, Ministries themselves had to pay to get certain maps. “We decided that all Indians should be able to get these maps for free because the government has already paid to get them made,” Mr. Sharma added.
•A press release said the Nakshe portal would address “...security concerns and tracking through Aadhaar-based user authentication and tagging to Aadhaar number of user.”
New model
•Swarna Subba Rao, Surveyor General of India, said the Dehradun-based organisation was developing a so-called Geoid model of the country. This would make measurements of topography by satellite — the modern method — compatible with the traditional ground-based measures.
Govt. to get tough on traffic offences
Lok Sabha approves motor vehicle law amendments
•The Lok Sabha on Monday cleared amendments to the motor vehicles law that will substantially increase the penalty for traffic violations, allow learner’s driving licences to be issued online and penalise contractors for faulty road designs.
•Driving without a licence may soon lead to a minimum fine of Rs. 5,000 as against Rs. 500 at present, according to the Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill 2016. Similarly, for over-speeding, the penalty may go up to Rs. 1,000-2,000 from Rs. 400. Not wearing seatbelts would result in a minimum penalty of Rs. 1,000 against Rs. 100 at present.
•The traffic violation penalties will also increase 10% each year once the Bill becomes a law. To become a law, the Bill, which will amend the Motor Vehicles Act 1988, must be passed in the Rajya Sabha, followed by President Pranab Mukherjee’s consent.
•The Bill was passed in the Lok Sabha by voice vote after various opposition amendments were rejected.
•The proposed law will also allow citizens to apply or renew a driving licence from any road transport office in the State. At present, citizens can only apply at the closest RTO.
•The Centre also plans to make submission of Aadhaar number mandatory for applying for a driving licence and vehicle registration by making an enabling provision in the Bill.
Only Parliament can allow additions to OBC list
Backward Classes Commission gets constitutional status
•The Lok Sabha on Monday cleared The Constitution 102nd Amendment Bill, that grants constitutional status to the Backward Classes Commission, now called the National Commission for Socially and Educationally Backward Classes. The Bill also enjoins that any addition to the Central list of communities under the Other Backward Classes will have to be cleared through Parliament.
•Minister for Social Justice and empowerment Thawarchand Gehlot said that the bill would ensure the rights of the Other Backward Classes, and give the National Commission for Backward Classes the constitutional safeguards enjoyed by the National Commission for Scheduled Castes and Tribes. Mr Gehlot also tried to allay fears expressed by several opposition parties on the Centre’s encroachment on the rights of State government to include the names of OBC castes in the Central list.
•“I want to assure all the honourable members that their fears of an attack on the rights of the State government via this bill are unfounded,” he said.
SC asks how children end up in J&K mobs
Advises State Bar association from taking sides
•When told that security forces’ indiscriminate use of pellet guns against mobs in Jammu and Kashmir is creating a “nation of blind people”, the Supreme Court on Monday retorted by questioning the sense of humanity of the very people who form the mob and use children as cover while engaging security forces in pitched street battles.
•The court was reacting to arguments by the J&K High Court Bar Association, which has filed a public interest litigation petition for a ban on pellet guns.
•“But what are children aged seven, nine and 14 years doing in a mob? Why are they placed in front of the mobs who confront security forces,” a Supreme Court Bench of Chief Justice of India J.S. Khehar and Justices D.Y. Chandrachud and S.K. Kaul retorted on Monday.
•“The age-group of those injured are from 13 to 20 and 20 to 24 years. Young students are the ones most injured,” Justice Chandrachud said.
•“About a 100 security personnel within the distance of two to three booths. Why do they do it on polling day? Election is a symbol of democracy,” Attorney-General Mukul Rohatgi submitted for the Centre.
Advice to Bar
•The Supreme Court advised the Bar Association against taking sides.
•“We feel we have an important role to play in this issue,” Chief Justice Khehar said, while allowing the Association two weeks to file an affidavit.
Australian uranium to arrive soon
Turnbull says working closely with India to meet its fuel requirements for civil nuclear programme
•Australia will start supplying uranium to India “as soon as possible”, the visiting Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, said here on Monday.
•Australia’s promise on uranium was announced even as both countries signed six agreements, including one on countering terrorism.
•“Our know-how and resources are already partnering with India’s 24x7 Power For All, Smart Cities and Make in India programmes, but there is room for further growth. We’ve worked closely with India to meet our respective requirements for the provision of fuel for India’s civil nuclear programme, and we look forward to the first export of Australian uranium to India as soon as possible,” Mr. Turnbull said in a press statement at Hyderabad House following bilateral talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
•Mr. Modi welcomed the passage of the Civil Nuclear Transfers to India Act in the Australian Parliament, opening up opportunities for Australia to support Indian energy generation. Australia has about 40 per cent of the world’s uranium reserves and exports nearly 7,000 tonnes of yellow cake annually. Both sides agreed to extend bilateral engagement to the Asia- Pacific region. In this context, a joint statement issued at the end of the meeting agreed to hold a bilateral maritime exercise named AUSINDEX in the Bay of Bengal in 2018 and also pledged to hold a joint exercise of the Special Forces later this year. Both sides welcomed the decision for the first bilateral Army-to-Army exercise later this year.
•The bilateral discussion also hinted at a growing agreement to oppose China’s territorial claims over the South China Sea region.
Chinese presence
•As part of the emerging Asia-Pacific focus of India-Australia ties, the joint statement took a firm position against China’s growing presence in the South China Sea region and said, “Both leaders recognised that India and Australia share common interests in ensuring maritime security and the safety of sea lines of communication. Both leaders recognised the importance of freedom of navigation and overflight, unimpeded lawful commerce, as well as resolving maritime disputes by peaceful means.
Transformative visit
India assures Bangladesh on Teesta water sharing, as the two countries broadbase ties
•Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s assurance to visiting Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina of an “early resolution” to the Teesta water dispute has firmly brought the elephant in the room to the fore. Mr. Modi’s statement, made in the presence of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, has been widely welcomed. It defined both India’s commitment to the Teesta water-sharing agreement and the Central government’s commitment to working with the West Bengal government to conclude the agreement for which the framework was initialled in 2011. The holdout is clearly political; hence the resolution will only come from political dialogue, and must be forged quickly. Both governments would do well to understand the advice hidden in Sheikh Hasina’s message during a speech where she praised “all parties and all politicians” for coming together and clearing the land boundary agreement (LBA), to swap enclaves India and Pakistan held in each other’s territory, in 2015. “Like in 1971, the entire Indian people came together for Bangladesh for it [LBA],” Ms. Hasina said, stressing the need for bipartisanship to prevail in ties. Credit for the strength of the relationship should go also to the previous Manmohan Singh government. Dr. Singh and Ms. Hasina expended significant political capital to transform ties, particularly on cooperation on terrorism, and the frameworks for the land swap and water-sharing arrangements.
•Nevertheless, it is to the credit of both Mr. Modi and Ms. Hasina that India and Bangladesh were able to make progress on other issues such as energy cooperation and connectivity, signing a total of 22 agreements, with another 14 in the field of private investment and MoUs. The MoU on a framework for defence cooperation essentially formalised existing arrangements for defence exchanges, military training and high-level defence visits, while the agreement of cooperation on peaceful uses of nuclear energy endorsed the existing training programmes for Bangladeshi scientists at Indian facilities. India’s announcement of further lines of credit of $5 billion, including $500 million for defence purchases, the largest such LoC extended to any country so far, is important. In a context where connectivity is the new currency to extend one’s influence and where China is taking the lead with its Belt & Road initiative, India has chosen well to extend funds to rebuild old railway lines, and construct bridges, power plants, ports and roads in Bangladesh. Plans to revive inland waterway channels are also under way, and hold the potential to increase connectivity with Nepal and Bhutan. Not only will these measures strengthen the bonds with Bangladesh, with which India shares its longest international border as well as historical bonds, they will help India connect to itself, to the benefit especially of the northeastern States.
Till the next port of call
France and India must do more together in the Indian Ocean, given our shared interests of maritime security
•Mission Jeanne d’Arc, made up of the amphibious assault ship/landing platform dock (LPD), Mistral, and the frigate, Courbet, called at the Mumbai port between March 29 and April 3, having set sail from the French military base in Djibouti before heading for Vietnam. It is for the third consecutive year that France has deployed this important mission in the Indian Ocean, the China Seas and the Pacific region.
•On each occasion, France has chosen to call at an Indian port: Visakhapatnam in 2015 and Kochi in 2016. At the time, it had just carried out an evacuation operation in Yemen in coordination with the Indian Navy, as part of providing Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief (HADR), for which our LPDs are among the best in the world, given their cargo capacities and deployment capabilities.
•These port calls always give rise to enriching interactions between navies. The 2017 edition was no exception, with numerous reciprocal visits and exercises carried out with our officer cadets. I was able to observe this first-hand alongside Rear Admiral Didier Piaton, French Joint Forces Commander in the Indian Ocean (ALINDIEN). But over the past two years, these calls have acquired a special dimension; they reflect and support the swift development of cooperation between our two countries.
Growing cooperation
•Along with combating terrorism, maritime security has become a priority of our defence and security cooperation.
•In fact, it greatly contributes to this cooperation given the threat of maritime terrorism. France has not forgotten the numerous victims the 2008 Mumbai attacks claimed, two of whom were our nationals.
•Several concrete examples illustrate this unprecedented dynamic pace: in 2015, our carrier strike group (CSG) with the aircraft carrier, Charles de Gaulle, at its core, docked at Goa as part of our bilateral exercise, “Varuna”. On that occasion, the Indian Navy — one of the few to also possess an aircraft carrier — could train on the naval version of the Rafale, which our CSG forces are equipped with. At the end of this month, the next edition of the “Varuna” exercise will be held, this time off the French coast. Once again, significant assets will be mobilised. In the meantime, India and France have held two high-level bilateral dialogues on maritime security in the Indian Ocean and signed their first White Shipping Agreement on January 18, 2017; the latter’s operationalisation will be a significant step towards more ambitious exchanges and complex cooperation.
•We will not rest on our laurels. There are several reasons for this. France has significant interests in the Indian Ocean due to its overseas territory, Reunion Island, which is home to over a million French citizens; its 2.8 million square kilometres of exclusive economic zone (i.e. more than 10% of the Indian Ocean’s surface), and the volume of sea traffic in this zone. Due to this, we have significant means in the Indian Ocean, whether deployed permanently or depending on requirement. India is France’s top strategic partner in Asia and our intention is to work towards making this relation fructify further alongside our other partners in the region such as Australia, Japan, Singapore and Vietnam. We share, in particular, the same values of preserving the freedom of navigation and respecting the international law of the sea.
•Therefore, it is both natural and necessary that France and India do more together in the Indian Ocean to serve our shared interests of security. I am convinced that over the next few years, this cooperation will become one of the pillars of the strategic partnership between our two countries. We are ready to take up this challenge.
A short history of a big deal
The Teesta treaty continues to dominate relationsbetween India and Bangladesh
•Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s visit to India and the signing of 36 agreements of cooperation ranging from the economic, defence and power sectors to the peaceful use of nuclear energy shows that significant progress has been made in Indo-Bangla relations in the last eight years. However, the stalled Teesta treaty continues to eclipse bilateral relations as water affects the lives of ordinary people across vast spaces of land. It seems that in spite of the goodwill prevailing in Delhi, West Bengal has become a thorn in Indo-Bangla relations.
•Bangladesh shares 54 of its 57 transboundary rivers with India. After the Ganges, Brahmaputra and the Meghna (GBM) river system, Teesta is the fourth largest river shared between the two countries. In 1983, an ad hoc water-sharing agreement allocated 39% of the water flow to India and 36% to Bangladesh and remaining 25% was left unallocated for a later decision. The Teesta river’s floodplain covers an area of 2,750 sq km in Bangladesh, supporting roughly 10 million people. An estimated one lakh hectares of land across five districts of Bangladesh are severely impacted and face acute shortages during dry seasons. Apart from livelihood directly obtained from the river, agriculture is also affected as 14% crop production is dependent on the flow of the river. At stake are the lives of millions of people of Bangladesh who depend on the river for their survival. Therefore, it is imperative that the treaty provide equal allocation of the Teesta, a fair demand from the side of the lower riparian Bangladesh.
So near, yet so far
•In 2011, during the visit of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to Dhaka, plans had been confirmed of an interim arrangement of 15 years, with India getting 42.5% and Bangladesh 37.5% of the river during dry seasons. The arrangement also included the setting of a joint hydrological observation station to gather accurate data for the future. The plans fell through when West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee opted out of the delegation led by Dr. Singh to Dhaka, expressing strong reservations against giving Bangladesh a greater share of water.
•Hopes were renewed during Ms. Banerjee’s visit to Dhaka in February 2015 when upon arrival she said, “Have trust on me on the Teesta issue... I will have talks on the matter with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.” Despite her reassurances, she continues to flip-flop on her stance on the share Bangladesh should get. Again during the visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in June 2015, Ms. Banerjee accompanied the delegation and positive expectations were rife on both sides. The Modi government accepted the new arrangement between India and Bangladesh, but Ms. Banerjee did not. Hence, the deal was not inked despite Mr. Modi saying “rivers should nurture the India-Bangladesh relationship and not become a source of discord”. The general perception was that the Teesta treaty could not be concluded before the West Bengal State elections in April-May 2016. Despite winning the elections for a second consecutive term, during her recent face-to-face talks with Prime Minister Hasina in Delhi, the Chief Minister stated, “Your problem is water, not Teesta. I am willing to look at any alternate proposal to address your issues.”
Mamata’s flip-flops
•When the Chief Minister herself had appointed an expert committee headed by Kalyan Rudra in 2011 to study the Teesta issue, the report, though unpublished, was in favour of Bangladesh. Says Ainun Nishat, a prominent hydrology expert from Bangladesh, “India has completely dried out the river on our end during lean period by closing all the gates of the Gazaldoba barrage. That is unexpected from a friendly neighbour. This treaty is a formality, but India cannot ignore our rights to the river water.”
•Ms. Banerjee has sat on the issue and been changing goalposts for six years, with Bangladesh hostage to its neighbour’s domestic politics as a State government refuses to play ball with the Centre. Speculation is now rife that Ms. Banerjee is trying to secure a financial package from Delhi and the Teesta treaty has become the bargaining tool for it. It is ordinary Bangladeshis who are bearing the brunt of this impasse.
•With elections slated for early 2019, it is Ms. Hasina whose credibility is at stake at home after all that she has done for taking Indo-Bangla relations to newer heights. Unfortunately, the Bengal of India has become the sore throat in an otherwise evolving and matured Indo-Bangla relations.
Mind the treatment gap
Implementation of the Mental Healthcare Act will require a restructuring of health-care services
•The Mental Healthcare Bill, 2016, which was passed in the Lok Sabha on March 27, 2017, has been hailed as a momentous reform. According to the Bill, every person will have the right to access mental health care operated or funded by the government; good quality and affordable health care; equality of treatment and protection from inhuman practices; access to legal services; and right to complain against coercion and cruelty. The Bill also empowers a mentally ill person to choose a treatment and her/his nominated representative, decriminalises attempted suicide, prohibits the use of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) to mentally ill adults without the use of muscle relaxants and anaesthesia, and contains provisions for care, treatment and rehabilitation for those who have experienced severe stress and attempted suicide. While these are laudable and ambitious objectives as they address major concerns of mental health care, there have been some critiques drawing attention to the lack of funds, trained personnel, and insufficient emphasis on community care. The ground reality, however, suggests that these objectives are not justoverambitious but an overkill .
Poor infrastructure, low funds
•The Global Burden of Disease Study shows that in 2013, 50% of all disease burden in India was caused by non-communicable diseases, while mental disorders accounted for about 6% of the total disease burden. A third of this is due to depression, which also significantly contributes to suicide and ischaemic heart disease. Worse, suicide is a leading cause of death in people in India aged 15-29.
•There are only 43 government-run mental hospitals across all of India to provide services to more than 70 million people living with mental disorders. There are 0.30 psychiatrists, 0.17 nurses, and 0.05 psychologists per 1,00,000 mentally ill patients in the country. The case of the Bareilly mental hospital — one of three major mental hospitals in Uttar Pradesh — is stunning. In this hospital, 350 patients can be admitted and around 200 patients can attend the out-patient department every day. But all these patients would be at the mercy of only one psychiatrist!
•At the macro level, the proposed health expenditure of 1.2% of GDP in the Budget for 2017-18 is among the lowest in the world. In real terms, public health expenditure has consistently declined since 2013-14. Of the total health budget, a mere 1-2% is spent on mental health.
•But this is a small part of the explanation of the inadequacy and abysmal quality of mental health services in India. Underlying this deplorable state of affairs is a pervasive perception that those with mental illnesses are pathological or even criminal; hence they do not deserve the type of rehabilitation given to those with physical ailments. Besides, the treatment gap (the difference between those suffering from mental illnesses and those seeking medical/psychiatric care) is widened because of the social stigma attached to such illnesses. In fact, many poor people hide their illnesses and endanger their lives. Others argue that it is not so much stigma but ignorance and lack of knowledge, myths, and supernatural beliefs that impede treatment. Women typically face larger treatment gaps as they are vulnerable to violence, sexual abuse and inhuman treatment.
•Ethnographic evidence from the Human Rights Watch Report 2014 relating to women inpatients is gruesome. Deepali, a woman with a perceived psychosocial disability, said: “The nurse would sometimes forcefully put the pills in my mouth and stroke my throat to send them down, the way I feed my dogs... I woke up one night and I couldn’t move; my body was in intense physical pain. A nurse came and jabbed an injection into my body, without even taking off my clothes. You are treated worse than animals.”
•Often, all women and girls were admitted without their consent and, as the team left, they cried out in despair, “send me home” or “take me home”. Unable to cope with mentally ill relatives, families often abandon them in mental hospitals and elsewhere. In one case, a woman who was declared “fit for discharge” in the 1990s was still in the institution as of August 2013 because of lack of alternative resettlement options for her.
•Some women were not even informed that ECT was being administered. Psychiatric nurses admitted that ECT was administered not just on violent and suicidal patients but also on new admissions who tend to be unmanageable.
•Women and girls with psychosocial or intellectual disabilities in institutions are often subject to not just physical and verbal abuse but also sexual violence. Some women went to a hospital for three months and returned one month pregnant. Not a single FIR was filed.
•Government hospitals refuse to admit “mentally ill” persons in the ICU on the grounds that this facility could be put to better use. A woman suffering from breast cancer for two-three years was denied treatment and subsequently died.
Shift to community-based care
•An emphatic case could be made for shifting from institutional care to community-based care for people suffering from mental disorders. A study published in The Lancet Psychiatry , 2017 offers corroborative evidence from VISHRAM (the Vidharbha Stress and Health Programme), which is a community-based mental health initiative. The reduction in the treatment gap was due to increased supply of mental health services through front-line workers and their collaborative linkage with the physicians and psychiatrists in the facilities, as well as increased demand for mental health services due to improved mental health literacy. The substantial reduction in the median cost of care resulted from availability of general as well as specialist services in the village itself.
•Whether legislation such as the Mental Healthcare Bill help overcome supply and demand barriers seems highly unlikely, as the root causes lie in pervasive negative attitudes, massive neglect of mental health care, rampant abuse and unchecked inhuman practices, and weak redressal and enforcement mechanisms. The Bill seeks to address major lacunae in mental health care and is thus an important step forward. However, its implementation will require substantially larger public resources and, more importantly, restructuring of mental healthcare services with a key role for the community in their provision, rapid expansion of mental health literacy, effective monitoring and enforcement of the objectives envisioned in it. With limited awareness of these challenges, and with a slight risk of exaggeration, the Bill is an overkill.
‘Healthcare needs innovative funding’
Alternatives needed to boost healthcare spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2030: PwC
•Conventional modes of resource mobilisation must be aided by an innovative funding mechanism to improve healthcare investments in India, a Healthcare Federation of India (NATHEALTH)-PwC report has said.
•The report said funding should be mobilised from pension funds and that investments should be routed through public-private partnership and long-term debt.
•It has also suggested funding through business trust entities such as Real Estate Investment Trusts along with funds sourced through bilateral investment treaties.
•Underlining the need for huge funding requirements, the report said, “FDI in the sector has significantly increased in the last three years. However, healthcare expenditure’s share in GDP remained around 1.6% in FY16 and innovative funding modes would support the target of taking it to 2.5% by 2030.”
‘Quantum leap’
•It has also highlighted the fact that private equity deals were supporting funding in the sector and the value of transactions had increased from $94 million in 2011 to $1.28 billion in 2016, a jump of 13.5 times.
•“Access to capital has been one of the biggest roadblocks to the growth of the Indian healthcare sector,” said Dr. Rana Mehta, partner and leader, healthcare, PwC India.
•“Today, the Indian government spends only about 1.5% of its GDP on healthcare, which is among the lowest globally for any country,” he said.
•“Along with building highways, firing up power plants and ensuring there is a roof over every Indian’s head, there is a need to focus on the healthcare needs of the country.”
•Anjan Bose, Secretary General, NATHEALTH said, “While the opportunity for improvement of health services in India is huge, it is for the government and the entire healthcare ecosystem to work together so that benefits percolate to the segment that require them the most."
•The New Health Policy 2017 too had highlighted that innovative modes of funding were needed to meet the requirements of the healthcare sector, the report said.
Hasina invites Indian companies to Bangladesh, promises SEZs
The nation needs $20 billion a year to take advantage of demographic dividend
•Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina invited Indian companies to invest in the country’s infrastructure sector that requires investments of about $20 billion a year till 2030, promising to exclusively dedicate at least three of the 100 proposed special economic zones in the country for Indian investors.
•Speaking at the India Bangladesh Business Forum on Monday, Ms. Hasina, who has a 250-member industry delegation accompanying her, said she would encourage Indian investors to consider investments in Bangladesh in infrastructure projects especially in the energy sector, as well as manufacturing, transport and food processing.
•“We need $20 billion annually till 2030 to take full advantage of our high demographic dividend and cheap labour costs,” Ms. Hasina said, stressing that apart from a bilateral investment pact to protect Indian investors, the country was also offering packages that allow 100% repatriation of profits and invested capital by foreign investors.
•With a per-capita income of $1,446 and a growth rate of 6% to 7% in the last eight years, Bangladesh offers a fast-growing domestic market of 160 million consumers as well as special duty-free access to various global markets, Ms. Hasina pointed out, expressing hope that the country’s economy will grow at 8% by 2020.
•As many as thirteen pacts were signed between Indian and Bangladeshi firms at the summit, entailing investments of about $9 billion. Apart from joint ventures between public sector firms of the two countries, these pacts included a $2-billion deal between Adani Power Limited and Bangladesh Power Development Board for purchasing power from the company’s 1,600 MW Power Plant in Jharkhand.
Made in Bangladesh
•Claiming that Ms. Hasina was turning Bangladesh from ‘a basketcase to a miracle case,’ Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce & Industry president Abdul Matlub Ahmad said he was confident that Indian industrialists would invest about $7 billion into Bangladesh, but called for steps to correct the trade imbalance between the two nations.
•Union Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan said that bilateral trade between India and Bangladesh had grown 17% in the past five years to reach $6.5 billion, but Bangladesh’s exports have failed to cross the billion-dollar mark.
•“I must thank India for allowing duty-free access to Bangladesh goods, but our exports are hovering between $500 million to $750 million. We are not to cross the billion-dollar mark. Why is it so?” Mr. Ahmad asked.
•“Indian companies like Emami and Dabur have set up factories in Bangladesh to supply to the local market. Why don’t we look at re-exporting these branded products Made In Bangladesh back to India?” he suggested as a measure to boost its exports to $1 billion.
•While the proposed regional connectivity plans such as the Bangladesh Bhutan India Nepal corridor could boost economic ties, Mr. Ahmad said the project wasn’t moving.
•“The biggest hurdle is the visa system. Bangladesh gives Indian people a visa so they can enter from any airport or any land port. But when Bangladesh people get a visa from India, we are given either for Petrapole or Agartala or some other place, (entry is) limited to only one point. Unless and until we can change this, it will be very difficult for the regional cooperation to ultimately come in place,” Mr. Ahmad said.
