Daily Briefing: The India-Indonesia playbook

Big Story

Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto has had an action-packed three-day sojourn to India. The 2 countries enhanced their bilateral ties implicit the weekend, signing pacts connected maritime security, health, culture, etc. Subianto was the main impermanent of India’s Republic Day celebrations connected Sunday.

India connect: In a code astatine a banquet hosted by President Droupadi Murmu connected Saturday, Subianto revealed that his familial sequencing trial revealed helium has “Indian DNA”. “…And everybody knows erstwhile I perceive Indian music, I commencement dancing… it indispensable beryllium portion of my make-up,” helium said. Later that evening, a delegation of Indonesian ministers regaled the gathering with a rendition of the 1998 Bollywood opus ‘Kuch Kuch Hota Hai’.

Act East: In enactment with India’s ‘Act East’ argumentation of cultivating ties with Southeast Asian nations, New Delhi and Jakarta agreed to an “early constitution of bilateral maritime dialog and cyber information dialogue”. The joint statement issued Sunday said that some leaders supported the implementation of a “Code of Conduct” successful the South China Sea (SCS). For context, the SCS is important to planetary commercialized arsenic it connects the Pacific and Indian oceans. Several countries person accused China of assertive behaviour successful the region.

Old friends: 75 years ago, erstwhile India celebrated its archetypal Republic Day, then-Indonesian president Sukarno was honoured arsenic the main guest. Since then, India’s ties with Indonesia person seen galore highs and lows. After a decennary of cordiality, the narration deteriorated successful the 1960s, fixed Indonesia’s increasing closeness to Beijing and Islamabad and India’s to the Soviet Union. It wasn’t until the PV Narasimha Rao government’s 1990 ‘Look East’ argumentation that the relations took off.

Opportunity: Indonesia is India’s second-largest trading spouse successful the ASEAN region. With Subianto’s sojourn to Delhi aboriginal successful his tenure (he assumed bureau past October), Indonesia and India are good placed to accelerate commercialized further and bolster economical relations.

Only successful Express

Economist Arvind Panagariya is the president of the 16th Finance Commission, which advises the authorities connected Centre-state fiscal relations. In the latest variation of Idea Exchange, Panagariya discusses his caller publication connected the improvement exemplary nether Jawaharlal Nehru. Pangariya reflects connected however the Nehru exemplary came astir and its lessons for today’s world.

From the Front Page

Damn! Tragedy struck Sikkim successful October 2023 erstwhile a glacial water outburst flood washed distant a 60-metre-high rockfill factual dam of the Teesta-III hydel project. Over a twelvemonth later, an situation ministry sheet has cleared a connection to physique a caller 118.64-m-high concrete-gravity dam successful its place. Interestingly, the motion comes contempt concerns raised implicit the structure’s information and stableness by the sheet itself.

Review: Indian industries person flagged an “uncompetitive environment” and “market concentration” created by import restrictions connected captious earthy materials specified arsenic steel, aluminium, and polymers. The authorities whitethorn present steps to rational customized work rates successful the Union Budget 2025-26.

Decision 2025: We are conscionable days distant from the February 5 Delhi elections. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are locked successful an aggravated duel implicit “welfare schemes“. BJP’s assurances to support the schemes moving successful the nationalist superior person thrown the AAP off-balance.

Must Read

Need?: Vice President Jagdeep Dhankhar precocious asserted that a enactment whip curtails a member’s “freedom of expression” by enforcing a enactment line. Named aft a word that harks backmost to the hunting civilization of England, the whip strategy is arsenic aged arsenic India’s parliamentary history. Who enforces the whip system, and wherefore is it important? Read here.

All aboard: The world’s 2 astir populous countries bash not person nonstop aerial connectivity. India and China suspended regular rider flights betwixt them successful aboriginal 2020, giving important concern to connecting hubs similar Hong Kong and Singapore. However, things mightiness beryllium looking up for airlines successful India and China arsenic a resumption of nonstop flights and normalisation of visa issuances mightiness beryllium on the cards amid Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri’s sojourn to Beijing.

And Finally…

An Aadhaar card for trees? If you deliberation we’re making this up, nope. The Jammu and Kashmir authorities is connected a ngo to conserve the celebrated Chinar trees of the valley. As their numbers dwindle, the authorities government’s conservation methods see a census and a unsocial identity for each tree.

That’s each for today, folks! Until tomorrow,
Sonal Gupta

Business As Usual by EP Unny