20 MAY 2015: South Korea offers $10Billion to India

Ø  South Korea has offered to provide $10 billion to India for infrastructure, development of smart cities as the two countries agreed to upgrade their bilateral relationship to a “Special Strategic Partnership.”

Ø  The Rs. 20,000 crore Namami Gange project is spread over five years and covers 41 tributaries of Ganga. Rs. 7272 crore has been set aside for interventions in existing, defunct projects while Rs. 12,728 crore has been allocated for new initiatives. This is a four-fold increase since the new government came to power. Since 1985, Rs. 4168.55 crore has been spent on cleaning the river.

Ø  Draupadi Murmu on Monday took oath as the ninth Governor of Jharkhand, the first tribal woman to occupy the position in the State. She was administered the oath of office by Jharkhand High Court Chief Justice Virendra Singh. She succeeds Syed Ahmad, who has been shifted to Manipur.

Ø  Mother Teresa will be canonised in September 2016, senior priest and spokesperson of the Syro Malabar Church Paul Thelekat said on Monday. Pope John Paul-II beatified Mother Teresa on October 19, 2003.

Ø   The European Union’s Ambassador to New Delhi, Joao Cravinho, last week expressed keenness to pursue the India-EU Free Trade Agreement talks. The desire is mutual. Despite the vigorous pace that the Narendra Modi government has marked in the matter of foreign relations in general, this process has remained in suspended animation for two years now. Minister for Commerce and Industry Nirmala Sitharaman had assured the Ambassador in March of India’s willingness to resume talks. As Mr. Cravinho mentioned, the meeting of the OECD countries scheduled for June offers an opportunity for both sides to draw up a road map. The EU identified India as a ‘strategic partner’ in 2004. A Joint Action Plan was signed in 2005 and negotiations on the proposed Broad-based Trade and Investment Agreement (BTIA) were launched in June 2007. Eight years down the line, some contentious issues still remain. In the backdrop of Prime Minister Modi’s visit to France and Germany in April came the cancellation of the India-EU summit, apparently for “logistical” reasons. Issues such as the EU ban on import of mangoes from India announced in May 2014, and the legal proceedings in India involving the Italian Marines, are also factors that have left the relationship strained. The EU is one of India’s largest trading partners and a major source of FDI. The value of EU-India trade grew from €28.6 billion in 2003 to €72.5 billion in 2014, while trade in commercial services rose from €5.2 billion in 2002 to €23.7 billion in 2013. India has concluded agreements with ASEAN, Japan, Singapore and Korea. With the EU the scale of the deal is more ambitious, and consequently the disagreements. For instance, the EU is unhappy with India’s protectionism in the automobile sector, and wants steep cuts in duties, and tariff cuts in things such as wine, spirits and dairy products. But tariff cuts in the agricultural sector would mean Europe’s heavily subsidised agro industry will dump its surplus here, hitting Indian farmers. India’s generic drug market also raises intellectual property concerns for European pharmaceutical corporations. India, on the other hand, is unhappy with the EU not recognising it as a “data secure nation”, and with what the EU has to offer in the area of IT/BPO/KPO services (Mode 1) and the movement of skilled professionals (Mode 4). But the EU is no doubt keen on partnering with India in programmes such as Make in India, Swachh Bharat and Smart City projects. Another criticism levelled against the FTA talks has been over lack of transparency and inadequate consultations with civil society participants. These concerns will also have to be remedied in future rounds of dialogue. It is to be hoped that the whole process would now gain momentum and lead to a negotiated deal.