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Modi to visit Ramallah on February 10, will be first ever Indian PM in Palestine

Agencies
February 5, 2018

New Delhi, Feb 5: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be on a historic visit to Palestine starting Saturday. During his visit, he will hold a meeting with the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Apart from visiting Oman and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the prime minister will also go to the Palestinian capital, Ramallah.

In July 2017, he was on a three-day visit to Israel on a special invitation from his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu, however, he did not visit Palestine then.

Modi will be in the UAE on February 10 and 11 and will address the sixth World Government Summit in Dubai. This will be Modi's second visit to the UAE after August 2015.

According to authorities and business leaders, this visit of the Prime Minister signifies the special importance that India attaches to its ties with the oil-rich nation and will help in furthering cooperation in diplomatic, economic and security issues.

"Prime Minister Narendra Modi?s second visit to UAE is an indication of the special importance we attach to the India- UAE relationship," India's Ambassador to the UAE Navdeep Singh Suri said.

According to him, the visit builds in the momentum that has developed since India hosted Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed as chief guest on Republic Day in 2017.

Besides bilateral engagements, Prime Minister Modi is scheduled to address members of the Indian community at the Dubai Opera House.

"During the year, we have seen major UAE investments into India, a significant increase in defence and security cooperation, a transformation in our energy ties from a buyer-seller relationship to a strategic partnership.

"For the community, the first Hindu temple in Abu Dhabi will be great news," Suri said.

Echoing Suri's sentiments, the UAE ambassador to India Ahmed Al-Banna said the visit "tells us the direction that India and the UAE have in mind and also the characteristics of our respective leaderships."

"The leadership has put us on a challenging and interesting track where the relationship is very important, on many sectors, and our leaders are pushing to rewrite future plans for both nations," Al-Banna said.

While Ambassador Suri highlighted the trade and investment component of this rapidly-evolving relationship, Ambassador Al-Banna chose to emphasise on the connectivity aspect of it.

"There are 1,076 flights a week between India and the UAE, which is the largest operation of its kind. More than 50 per cent of Indians, who travel outside India to different destinations, such as Europe or America, use Dubai and Abu Dhabi as their transit hub," he said.

It is obvious that both sides are banking on prime minister's visit to go over and above the 17 bilateral agreements signed in January 2016, and 14 agreements in February 2017.

With an eye on India, some leading Gulf businesses with Indians at the helm see this as realisation of long-held dreams.

Yusuffali MA, chairman Lulu Group International and member of Abu Dhabi Chamber of Commerce, said India had been on an aggressive forward march with regard to attracting FDIs.

"The recent report by leading rating agencies and financial institutions have all lauded India?s fiscal policies and ease of doing business, so obviously India does look like a hot destination for investment.

As far Indo-UAE business relationship is concerned, it is at all time high with both countries being each other's top trading partner," Yusuffali said.

According to him, till recently India was seen as an investment destination only, but of late UAE has been trying to woo Indian businesses to invest and set up operations here.

"This move shows the kind of confidence UAE has on Indian economy and I am sure business houses in both countries will be eagerly looking forward to this visit to open up new areas of co-operation," Yusuffali said.

Manoj Prasad, Executive Chairman, of DIFC-based investment banking firm, Que Capital Limited, believes this visit truly signifies the seriousness among top Indian leadership toward making an ever growing relationship between two countries more meaningful.

"The ambition is obviously growth to which both countries have already started contributing, be it through India investing in infrastructure or the bilateral investment fund which is in the process of being setup," says Prasad.

According to him, businesses among the two countries have witnessed unprecedented growth in recent years.

"The comfort and mutual respect for leaders of both the countries are clearly visible and the visit of Prime Minister Modi to the land with highest NRI diaspora in the world would further enhance it," he said.

A wide spectrum of companies stands to gain from improving bilateral relations facilitating business climate on both sides, he said.

Kulwant Singh, the founder and managing director of Lama Hospitality group, feels the visit signifies that we are serious about our relationship and take our commitments, business associations, joint opportunities, and strategic tie-ups seriously.

"We see the formula of successful businesses matching with the perfect platform of opportunities available in India. With the new budget in place, NRIs will have huge opportunities in sectors like healthcare, education, and infrastructure," Singh said.

Prasanth Manghat, CEO and Executive Director, NMC Health Plc, says the visit will not only develop his outreach to the Arab world but also offer a prospect to further the strategic partnerships in the region.

According to him, the visit is seen by many as cementing the close relationship Modi shares with the UAE leadership, also furthering cooperation in diplomatic, economic and security issues.

"At the ground level of delivery, the strategic partnership is being expanded and the UAE has announced plans to invest USD 75 billion over a decade to meet India?s infrastructure needs," he said.

Indian expatriates in the UAE actively participate in projects toward the development of the UAE and this visit will help further evolve the deep and historic relationship shared between the two countries, said Mehirr Nath Choppra, CEO Qasbah Group.

"It would certainly help to get an overview of the projects that have been announced in the past and their current status so serious players can set their timelines accordingly," Choppra said.

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News Network
January 13,2020

Jan 13: For the first time in years, the government of India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi is playing defense. Protests have sprung up across the country against an amendment to India’s laws — which came into effect on Friday — that makes it easier for members of some religions to become citizens of India. The government claims this is simply an attempt to protect religious minorities in the Muslim-majority countries that border India; but protesters see it as the first step toward a formal repudiation of India’s constitutionally guaranteed secularism — and one that must be resisted.

Modi was re-elected prime minister last year with an enhanced majority; his hold over the country’s politics is absolute. The formal opposition is weak, discredited and disorganized. Yet, somehow, the anti-Citizenship Act protests have taken hold. No political party is behind them; they are generally arranged by student unions, neighborhood associations and the like.

Yet this aspect of their character is precisely what will worry Modi and his right-hand man, Home Minister Amit Shah. They know how to mock and delegitimize opposition parties with ruthless efficiency. Yet creating a narrative that paints large, flag-waving crowds as traitors is not quite that easy.

For that is how these protests look: large groups of young people, many carrying witty signs and the national flag. They meet and read the preamble to India’s Constitution, into which the promise of secularism was written in the 1970’s.

They carry photographs of the Constitution’s drafter, the Columbia University-trained economist and lawyer B. R. Ambedkar. These are not the mobs the government wanted. They hoped for angry Muslims rampaging through the streets of India’s cities, whom they could point to and say: “See? We must protect you from them.” But, in spite of sometimes brutal repression, the protests have largely been nonviolent.

One, in Shaheen Bagh in a Muslim-dominated sector of New Delhi, began simply as a set of local women in a square, armed with hot tea and blankets against the chill Delhi winter. It has now become the focal point of a very different sort of resistance than what the government expected. Nothing could cure the delusions of India’s Hindu middle class, trained to see India’s Muslims as dangerous threats, as effectively as a group of otherwise clearly apolitical women sipping sweet tea and sharing their fears and food with anyone who will listen.

Modi was re-elected less than a year ago; what could have changed in India since then? Not much, I suspect, in most places that voted for him and his party — particularly the vast rural hinterland of northern India. But urban India was also possibly never quite as content as electoral results suggested. India’s growth dipped below 5% in recent quarters; demand has crashed, and uncertainty about the future is widespread. Worse, the government’s response to the protests was clearly ill-judged. University campuses were attacked, in one case by the police and later by masked men almost certainly connected to the ruling party.

Protesters were harassed and detained with little cause. The courts seemed uninterested. And, slowly, anger began to grow on social media — not just on Twitter, but also on Instagram, previously the preserve of pretty bowls of salad. Instagram is the one social medium over which Modi’s party does not have a stranglehold; and it is where these protests, with their photogenic signs and flags, have found a natural home. As a result, people across urban India who would never previously have gone to a demonstration or a political rally have been slowly politicized.

India is, in fact, becoming more like a normal democracy. “Normal,” that is, for the 2020’s. Liberal democracies across the world are politically divided, often between more liberal urban centers and coasts, and angrier, “left-behind” hinterlands. Modi’s political secret was that he was that rare populist who could unite both the hopeful cities and the resentful countryside. Yet this once magic formula seems to have become ineffective. Five of India’s six largest cities are not ruled by Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party in any case — the financial hub of Mumbai changed hands recently. The BJP has set its sights on winning state elections in Delhi in a few weeks. Which way the capital’s voters will go is uncertain. But that itself is revealing — last year, Modi swept all seven parliamentary seats in Delhi.

In the end, the Citizenship Amendment Act is now law, the BJP might manage to win Delhi, and the protests might die down as the days get unmanageably hot and state repression increases. But urban India has put Modi on notice. His days of being India’s unifier are over: From now on, like all the other populists, he will have to keep one eye on the streets of his country’s cities.

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News Network
June 4,2020

New Delhi, Jun 4: India's Defence Secretary Ajay Kumar tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday, following which the defence ministry carried out a massive contact-tracing exercise, official sources said.

Kumar's condition is stable and he is currently under home-quarantine, they said.

At least 35 officials working at the ministry's headquarters in South Block in the Raisina Hills have been sent on home quarantine after reports of Kumar testing positive for the infection emerged on Wednesday morning.

There was no official comment on Kumar's health condition. The defence ministry spokesperson refused to comment on the issue.

It is learnt that Defence Minister Rajnath Singh did not attend office as part of a precautionary measure.

The offices of the defence minister, the defence secretary, the Army Chief and the Navy Chief are on the first floor of the South Block.

The sources said all laid down protocols on contact-tracing and quarantining of people are being scrupulously followed.

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Agencies
August 2,2020

New Delhi, Aug 2: The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Sunday issued fresh guidelines for international passengers coming to India amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The new guidelines will be implemented from 12:01 am on August 8.

The ministry has also asked all passengers to submit a self-declaration form online at least 72 hours before travel.

"All travellers should submit self-declaration form on the on the online portal (www.newdelhiairport.in) at least 72hours before the scheduled travel," the guidelines said.

It also said that those coming to India must give an undertaking that they would undergo mandatory quarantine for 14 days as prescribed by the government. "They should also give an undertaking on the portal that they would undergo mandatory quarantine for 14 days i.e. 7 days paid institutional quarantine at their own cost, followed by 7 days isolation at home with self-monitoring of health," it added.

Giving exemptions in some cases, the guidelines mentioned, "Only for compelling reasons/cases of human distress such as pregnancy, death in the family. Serious illness and parent (s) with children of 10 years or below, home quarantine may be permitted for 14 days."

"If they wish to seek such exemption, they shall apply to the online portal at least 72 hours before boarding. The decision taken by the government as communicated on the online portal will be final," it said further.

The guidelines further said that travellers could request for exemption from institutional quarantine by submitting a negative RT-PCR test report on arrival.

"This test should have been conducted within 96 hours prior to undertaking the journey. The test report should be uploaded on the portal for consideration," it added.

Passengers have also been asked to download the Aarogya Setu app on their mobile phones.

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