Category: National

The director-level officer, who attended work on May 28, was found positive for the infection along with his family members, said sources

PTI

A Rajya Sabha Secretariat official tested positive for COVID-19 on Friday, the fourth such case reported in the Parliament complex so far, sources said here.

Out of the four, three were found to have contracted the infection after Parliament resumed operations on May 3 when Lockdown 2.0 ended and were on duty.

The director-level officer, who attended work on May 28, was found positive for the infection along with his family members, they said.

Two floors of the Parliament’s Annexe building have been sealed, the sources added.

This is the second case of an official posted in the building testing positive for the infection.

Earlier, an official of the Lok Sabha Secretariat working in the editorial and translation (E&T) services department was found positive for COVID-19.

The first employee posted at Parliament to test positive for the virus was a housekeeper, who had been at home since the Budget Session was adjourned on March 23, the sources said, adding that the other one was a security official.

After the Lok Sabha Secretariat official contracted the disease, the authorities had sanitised the entire premises on the building before resuming operations and continued to take all precautions thereafter.

Employees are now allowed to enter Parliament only after proper screening.

All vehicles are also sanitised before entering the complex.

The sources suggested that there have been a few symptomatic cases of coronavirus among employees working in different secretariats and branches at Parliament and its adjoining buildings.

Government buildings in the vicinity of the Parliament complex such as Krishi Bhawan, Shastri Bhawan and NITI Aayog, which have offices of several ministries and ministers, were sealed for a day or two following the detection of COVID-19 cases there.

They say they were taken by surprise by the U.S. President’s remarks

The government on Friday forcefully rejected U.S. President Donald Trump’s claim that he had spoken to Prime Minister Narendra Modi about the situation on the Line of Actual Control with China, or that the two leaders spoke at all.

“There has been no recent contact between PM Modi and President Trump. The last conversation between them was on 4 April 2020 on the subject of Hydroxychloroquine,” said government sources, who did not wish to be identified.

Government officials told The Hindu they were taken by surprise by the U.S. President’s comments, particularly his reference to PM Modi’s “mood” when Mr. Trump claimed to have spoken to him.

“I can tell you, I did speak to Prime Minister Modi. He’s not – he’s not in a good mood about what’s going on with China,” Mr. Trump told reporters at the White House on Thursday (Friday morning India time).

The sources also dismissed Mr. Trump’s repeated offer of mediation, saying that India and China were in touch directly. Earlier on Thursday, Mr. Trump said on Twitter that he was willing to “mediate or arbitrate” over what he called the “raging border dispute” between India and China.

In response to questions about Mr. Trump’s tweet, MEA spokesperson Anurag Srivastava had said that India and China were “engaged with the Chinese side to peacefully resolve the issue”, referring to the month-long standoff between the two armies along the LAC at points in Ladakh and Sikkim.

“MEA had also made it clear that we are directly in touch with the Chinese through established mechanisms and diplomatic contacts,” the government sources added on Friday.

When asked by reporters, Mr. Trump said that he would indeed be willing to broker talks between India and China if “it would help”.

“I would do that. You know, I would do that. If they – if they thought it would help if I were the mediator or the arbiter, I would do that. So, we’ll see,” Mr. Trump told a correspondent who asked him about his tweet.

In a series of responses to the correspondent of the PTI news agency, Mr. Trump said that he had returned from India just prior to the Coronavirus outbreak and that he “just beat COVID”. When asked about his “rockstar popularity” in India, Mr. Trump added, “I got back – I know. And they like me in India. I think they like me in India certainly more than the media likes me in this country.”

This is not the first time Mr. Trump has spoken publicly about a conversation between him and Mr. Modi, including the most recent conversation on India’s ban on HCQ exports, a ban which was reversed after the two leaders spoke.

While government officials have in the past questioned Mr. Trump’s version of the conversations, this is the first time that they have said that there was no conversation at all, as Mr. Trump claimed, creating a diplomatic precedent of sorts.

With inputs from The Hindu

A Pakistani villager has urged Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to return his pigeon, currently being held in India on charges of spying.

The man, who lives just 4km (2.5 miles) from the border, said he flew his pigeons to celebrate Eid festival.

Police said the pigeon had a ring on one of its legs, inscribed with a code that they were trying to decipher.

The Pakistani villager, who claims the arrested pigeon is his, says the code is actually his mobile phone number.

Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper has identified the man as Habibullah and reports that he owns a dozen pigeons.

Habibullah told the paper that his pigeon was a “symbol of peace” and India should “refrain from victimising innocent birds”.

Villagers captured the bird on Monday along the international border in Indian-administered Kashmir and handed it over to the police.

The Kashmir region is claimed by both India and Pakistan, and is the scene of regular military exchanges between the nuclear-armed neighbours.

This is not the first time a pigeon flying from Pakistan has landed in trouble with Indian officials.

In May 2015, a white pigeon was arrested after it was spotted by a 14-year-old boy in a village close to the border.

And in October 2016, another pigeon was taken into custody after it was found with a note threatening the Indian prime minister.

The two nations have been rivals for a long time, with the last full war between them taking place in 1971.

With inputs from BBC World News

No traction for U.S. President Donald Trump’s mediation offer; Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson, however, did not respond to questions about whether Chinese troops remained in areas patrolled by India, particularly in the Galwan valley.

Indian and Chinese sides remain “engaged” through diplomatic and military channels in Delhi and Beijing and at the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in order to resolve the situation along the boundaries in Ladakh and Sikkim, the government said on Thursday.

Indicating that India would not accept U.S. President Donald Trump’s offer to mediate between the two countries, it said the matter was being discussed bilaterally.

“We are fully engaged with the Chinese side to peacefully resolve the issue,” said Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Anurag Srivastava when asked about Mr. Trump’s assertion that he had conveyed to India and China his willingness to “mediate or arbitrate” on the “raging border dispute” between them.

Position of PLA troops

While giving no details of the nature and extent of the standoff, which has been going for weeks, the MEA said the contact between both sides on the issue included talks in “Delhi and Beijing”. The spokesperson, however, did not respond to questions about whether Chinese troops remained in areas patrolled by India, particularly in the Galwan valley.

“India is committed to the objective of maintenance of peace and tranquillity in the border areas with China and our armed forces scrupulously follow the consensus reached by our leaders and the guidance provided. At the same time, we remain firm in our resolve to ensuring India’s sovereignty and national security,” Mr. Srivastava said.

The MEA’s comments came a day after the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the situation at the LAC was “stable and controllable”. While declining to comment on the Chinese statement, the MEA spokesperson said the issues would be resolved according to five agreements on border management signed by India and China between 1993 and 2013.

“Indian troops take a very responsible approach towards border management and strictly follow the procedures laid out in various bilateral agreements and protocols with China to resolve any issue that may arise in the border areas,” said Mr. Srivastava in the most extensive comments made by the government thus far. “The two sides have established mechanisms both at military and diplomatic levels to resolve situations which may arise in border areas peacefully through dialogue and continue to remain engaged through these channels,” he added.

The issues with China are likely to be a part of other diplomatic discussions for the government as well.

Speaking at the weekly briefing for journalists, the spokesperson confirmed that the Prime Minister will hold a virtual summit with Australian Premier Scott Morrison on June 4, where a number of bilateral and regional issues would be discussed. The two leaders are expected to announce a long-pending agreement on the reciprocal use of military bases between them. The two leaders will also discuss strengthening the Indo-Pacific partnership, where sources said China’s recent moves in the South China Sea, as well as the ongoing standoff at the LAC are likely to be discussed.

Meanwhile the MEA is also preparing for another virtual summit between Mr. Modi and the leaders of the European Union, which had to be put off in March this year due to the coronavirus pandemic. On Thursday, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar held a video conference with his EU counterpart Josep Borrell to discuss the agenda for the 15th EU-India summit, “which will be held as soon as possible,” a press release issued by the EU in Brussels said.

“[Mr. Jaishankar and Mr. Borrell] also discussed relevant foreign policy topics, including Afghanistan, China, and Iran,” said the statement.

With inputs from The Hindu

General secretary Bhupendra Yadav said this at a video presser, while reiterating that the BJP “stood with the general public in the fight against COVID-19”.

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has forced the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to get creative over how to mark the first anniversary of the second successive Modi government with the party deciding to hold a month-long campaign of “digital rallies” in every district in India beginning on June 1.

Party general secretary Bhupendra Yadav said this at a video presser, while reiterating that the BJP “stood with the general public in the fight against COVID-19”.

“Our party workers have undertaken relentless relief work distributing 19 crore food packets and more than four crore dry ration kits,” he said.

Giving details about the first anniversary of second Modi government, Mr. Yadav said that the party will hold digital rallies across the country, and all the seven wings of the party will hold 500 digital rallies in their respective fields.

BJP president J.P. Nadda will also address party workers through Facebook Live on the occasion, he said.

The party will reach out to people with a letter written by Prime Minister Narendra Modi talking about self-reliant India and the achievements of the government, and will distribute it to 10 crore families, Mr. Yadav said.

When asked about the upcoming Bihar Assembly elections, Mr. Yadav, who is also the party’s in-charge for the State, said that it was for the Election Commission of India to decide when and how polls should be held.

“As far as the BJP is concerned, the party has been preparing for the elections and will use new technologies for campaigning and communicating with the people,” he said.

With inputs from The Hindu

He is admitted to Medanta hospital in Gurgaon, hospital sources said on Thursday

PTI

BJP’s national spokesperson Sambit Patra has been admitted to a private hospital in Gurgaon after he showed symptoms of coronavirus, sources said.

He is admitted to Medanta hospital in Gurgaon, hospital sources said on Thursday.

The BJP leader has shown symptoms of COVID-19, a source said.

Patra is one of the most visible BJP faces on news channels. He is also very active on social media and posted several tweets on Thursday as well.

The locusts initially entered Rajasthan from Pakistan

PTI

About 90,000 hectares in 20 districts of Rajasthan have been affected due to the locust attack, an official said Thursday.

Swarms of locust have moved from Sri Ganganagar, Nagaur, Jaipur, Dausa, Karauli and Swai Madhopur towards other areas in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh after the authorities conducted operations to tackle them.

Crop over 4,000 hectares in Sri Ganganagar and 100 hectares in Nagaur have been destroyed.

Around 90,000 hectares in 20 districts have been affected in the state due to the locust attack, said Om Prakash, Commissioner of the Agriculture Department. He said the department carried out locust control operations on 67,000 hectares.

Swarms of locust can travel up to 150 km a day with a speed of 15-20 km per hour and since there is no standing crop in the fields, they are targeting trees and other available vegetation, the official said. He said the non-availability of standing crops is the reason behind their movement from Pakistan to India.

Talking about the locust control operations, he said 800 tractors with mounted sprayers are being used to neutralise locusts. About 200 teams are involved in daily survey and farmers are being given free pesticides.

Swarms of locust had recently entered some residential areas of Jaipur and settled on trees and walls. After a few hours, the insects moved towards Dausa.

The study by Brookings India, released on Tuesday, noted that South Asia remains one of the least economically integrated regions in the world.

India’s trade with countries in South Asia has remained less than 4% of its global trade since the late 1980s while China has increased its exports to the region by 546%, from $8 billion in 2005 to $52 billion in 2018, according to a new study.

The study by Brookings India, released on Tuesday, noted that South Asia remains one of the least economically integrated regions in the world. Intra-regional trade remains well below its potential, at only 5% of the region’s global trade, because of “protectionist policies, high logistics cost, lack of political will and a broader trust deficit”.

India’s regional trade growth from 1991 until 1999 was minimal, according to the study titled “India’s limited trade connectivity with South Asia”. In 2008, India’s trade with South Asian neighbours reached a decadal high of $13.45 billion. Following a dip in 2009 due to the global financial crisis, India’s trade with its neighbours doubled in the next five years, touching $24.69 billion in 2014.

The slowdown in India’s exports to South Asia in 2015 and 2016 coincided with the 13% decline in India’s global trade, from $19 trillion in 2014 to $16.5 trillion in 2015. Intra-regional trade revived in 2017, reaching a peak at $24.75 billion, and picking up further in 2018 when it rose to $36 billion, according to the study.

India’s largest export market in the region is Bangladesh, followed by Sri Lanka and Nepal, whereas the largest imports by value come from Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

All countries in the neighbourhood have a trade deficit with India, the highest in 2018 being Bangladesh ($7.6 billion), followed by Nepal ($6.8 billion).

The study says that despite the growing trade volume, India’s trade with its neighbourhood has remained roughly between 1.7% and 3.8% of its global trade.

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Home / India News / India’s trade with South Asia less than 4% of global trade; China’s up by 546%
India’s trade with South Asia less than 4% of global trade; China’s up by 546%
The study by Brookings India, released on Tuesday, noted that South Asia remains one of the least economically integrated regions in the world.
India,South Asia,exports
India’s regional trade growth from 1991 until 1999 was minimal, according to the study titled “India’s limited trade connectivity with South Asia”. (Bloomberg Photo. Representative image )
Updated: May 28, 2020 13:33 IST
By HT Correspondent , Hindustan Times, New Delhi
India’s trade with countries in South Asia has remained less than 4% of its global trade since the late 1980s while China has increased its exports to the region by 546%, from $8 billion in 2005 to $52 billion in 2018, according to a new study.

The study by Brookings India, released on Tuesday, noted that South Asia remains one of the least economically integrated regions in the world. Intra-regional trade remains well below its potential, at only 5% of the region’s global trade, because of “protectionist policies, high logistics cost, lack of political will and a broader trust deficit”.

India’s regional trade growth from 1991 until 1999 was minimal, according to the study titled “India’s limited trade connectivity with South Asia”. In 2008, India’s trade with South Asian neighbours reached a decadal high of $13.45 billion. Following a dip in 2009 due to the global financial crisis, India’s trade with its neighbours doubled in the next five years, touching $24.69 billion in 2014.

The slowdown in India’s exports to South Asia in 2015 and 2016 coincided with the 13% decline in India’s global trade, from $19 trillion in 2014 to $16.5 trillion in 2015. Intra-regional trade revived in 2017, reaching a peak at $24.75 billion, and picking up further in 2018 when it rose to $36 billion, according to the study.

India’s largest export market in the region is Bangladesh, followed by Sri Lanka and Nepal, whereas the largest imports by value come from Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

All countries in the neighbourhood have a trade deficit with India, the highest in 2018 being Bangladesh ($7.6 billion), followed by Nepal ($6.8 billion).

The study says that despite the growing trade volume, India’s trade with its neighbourhood has remained roughly between 1.7% and 3.8% of its global trade.

This has happened despite trade agreements such as the SAARC Preferential Trading Arrangement (SAPTA), followed by the South Asian Free Trade Area (SAFTA) agreement, as well as the Indo-Myanmar Border Trade Agreement, the ASEAN–India Trade in Goods Agreement and the Indo-Sri Lanka Free Trade Agreement.

In contrast, China has consistently increased its trade with South Asia, barring a slight dip after the global financial crisis of 2008. In 2014, China’s trade reached a high of $60.41 billion, whereas India traded approximately one-third that amount at $24.70 billion.

Though China’s trade volume with South Asia is consistently larger, excluding Pakistan reduces the gap to almost half. This gap is attributed to the China–Pakistan Free Trade Agreement signed in 2006, which increased trade significantly between both countries.

The study’s analysis of India and China’s shares in the global trade of the South Asian countries revealed only the landlocked countries (Afghanistan, Bhutan, and Nepal) had a higher trade share with India when compared to China. While exports to China from the region have been minimal, imports from China have been growing since 2012 in Myanmar, and since 2014 in the Maldives, Bangladesh, and Pakistan.

In the case of Sri Lanka, there was heavy reliance on imports from India till 2013, owing to the Indo-Sri Lanka Free Trade Agreement. However, post-2013, both India and China export at par to Sri Lanka.

“In the last two decades, China has established itself as a major trade partner of South Asia. Beyond Pakistan, China has made inroads into South Asia by becoming Bangladesh’s top trading partner in 2015, and bolstering trade and investment with Nepal, Afghanistan, Maldives and Sri Lanka. This mainly reflects the region’s strategic importance for China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), particularly the smaller South Asian countries,” the study said.

The study recommended several steps to help improve India’s regional trade, including revisiting and redoubling the focus on free trade agreements, eliminating barriers and other protectionist policies, and enhancing cross-border infrastructure such as integrated check posts.

Data from World Bank’s World Integrated Trade Solution (WITS) database and the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) Direction of Trade Statistics (DOTS) database on trade by India and China with Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, the Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka was analysed for the study.

The study focused on India’s import and export with South Asian states from 1988 to 2018 and China’s trade with South Asia, excluding India, from 1992 to 2018.

With inputs from Hindustan Times

According to the Hudson Institute think-tank, the coronavirus pandemic threatens not only lives and livelihoods in South Asia; it could also be the precursor of significant political and strategic shifts in the region.

PTI

The U.S. and India must develop a plan to counter a possible effort by China to strengthen its position in the Indian Ocean by deepening ties with Pakistan and Sri Lanka by taking advantage of their economic woes due to the coronavirus pandemic, an American think-tank has said.

There have been considerable concerns in India over China’s growing presence in the Indian Ocean region. India has been trying to expand maritime cooperation with countries of the region including Sri Lanka, Maldives, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Myanmar and Singapore, primarily with an aim to check the growing Chinese assertiveness.

According to the Hudson Institute think-tank, the coronavirus pandemic threatens not only lives and livelihoods in South Asia; it could also be the precursor of significant political and strategic shifts in the region.

The Bangladesh and Indian economies will survive the devastation, but their governments will have to restore growth by protecting and encouraging investment, the think-tank said in a report jointly authored by Indian-origin Hudson research scholar Aparna Pande and former Pakistan Ambassador to the US Husain Haqqani.

“Pakistan and Sri Lanka will likely move in the direction of negative growth and will need debt relief from their international creditors. Without it, Sri Lanka faces the prospect of a sovereign debt default. Both countries are likely to look to China as their benefactor, as their leaders have tended to do for a while,” it said.

According to the report titled “Crisis from Kolkata to Kabul: COVID-19’s Impact on South Asia”, China will most likely press its advantage by bailing out South Asia’s indebted governments, “in exchange for its pound of flesh“.

“This would come at the expense of India’s security and US influence in the region. India and the United States must develop a plan to counter efforts China will likely make to strengthen its position in the Indian Ocean by deepening ties with Pakistan and Sri Lanka,” said the Hudson report, released this week.

Pakistan and Sri Lanka have been a target of Beijing’s ambitious Belt and Road (BRI) scheme, criticised for creating ‘debt traps’ by burdening fiscally weak countries with unsustainable debt.

The BRI is Chinese President Xi Jinping’s signature global infrastructure policy. First announced in 2013, the project promises to build ports, roads and railways to revive the ancient Silk Road and create new trade corridors linking China to Asia, Africa and Europe. The BRI also includes the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), which India opposed as it goes through Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).

In December 2017, Sri Lanka handed over the control of the southern sea port of Hambantota to China on a 99-year lease, triggering concern over Beijing’s efforts to expand influence in the Indian Ocean region.

Beijing has recently granted an “urgent” loan of $500 million to Colombo to help it fight the virus, which has infected over 1,465 people and claimed 10 lives in the country.

Earlier this month, China inked a $ 5.8 billion deal with Islamabad to build a dam in Gilgit-Baltistan, a move strongly opposed by India which said that carrying out such projects in territories under Pakistan’s illegal occupation was not proper.

The IMF has recently approved a loan of $500 million to cash-strapped Pakistan to cope with the economic crisis being posed by the coronavirus outbreak, which has infected over 59,000 people and killed more than 1,220. The country has also sought additional loans from the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank to tide over the crisis.

The report said India’s initiative to develop a regional response to the threat posed by COVID-19 has been undermined by Pakistan’s insistence on raising the Kashmir issue even in this challenging time.

“Given that Pakistan has fewer resources to further its military buildup against India, it is likely to escalate the use of sub conventional warfare (terrorism) in an effort to gain the upper hand against much-larger India,” the report noted.

Pakistan, it said, might seek relief from terrorism-related strictures on grounds that it needs space to deal with the coronavirus emergency.

International pressure, especially Financial Action Task Force (FATF) gray-list sanctions targeting Pakistan, might be needed to restrain the worst anti-Indian impulses of its civil and military leaders, the report added.

In the past, Pakistan has used natural disasters to expand terrorist infiltrations into Kashmir and India. Indian officials are concerned that Pakistan could use the COVID-19 crisis as a distraction to do the same, the report observed.

“Although a full-blown war in the subcontinent is unlikely, tensions between India and Pakistan will probably continue to impede efforts for regional cooperation. Such cooperation could ease the task of economic reconstruction that will almost certainly take place when the pandemic has died down. India could, and probably will, try to work with other countries in the region, but not Pakistan,” the report said.