Editorial 1: PM Modi’s US Congress address: ‘Together, we shall demonstrate that democracies matter and democracies deliver’
Recent Context:
- Recently Indian Prime minister Modi addressed the United States Congress on his official visit to USA. During the address, he highlighted certain areas of similarity and cooperation between both the nations.
Democracy is soul of both the nations:
- Democracy is one of sacred and shared values of both the nations. It has evolved over a long time, and taken various forms and systems.
- Throughout history, Democracy is the spirit that supports equality and dignity. It the idea that welcomes debate and discourse.
- Democracy is the culture that gives wings to thought and expression. India is blessed to have such values from times immemorial. Millennia ago, our oldest scriptures said, “the truth is one but the wise express it in different ways”.
- The US is the oldest and India the largest democracy. Therebefore partnership of both the nations is augurs well for the future of democracy.
- Together, Both the nations shall give a better future to the world, and a better world to the future.
India represents Unity in diversity: A message to the world for peaceful coexistence
- Last year, India celebrated 75 years of its independence. I was a remarkable journey of over 75 years of freedom, after a thousand years of foreign rule in one form or another.
- This was not just a celebration of democracy, but also of diversity. Not just of the Constitution, but also of its spirit of social empowerment. Not just of our competitive and cooperative federalism, but also of our essential unity and integrity.
- India has over 2,500 political parties and about 20 different parties govern various states of India that shows political diversity and its recognition.
- We have 22 official languages and thousands of dialects, and yet, we speak in one voice. Every hundred miles, our cuisine changes.
- India is home to all faiths in the world and celebrates all of them. Therefore, diversity is a natural way of life.
Women role in India’s progress and development from historical to modern scenario:
- Women sages composed many verses in the Vedas. And today, women are leading us to a better future.
- India’s vision is not just of development which benefits women. It is of women-led development.
- A woman has risen from a humble tribal background, to be our head of state. Nearly 1.5 million elected women lead us at various levels.
- Today, women serve our country in the Army, Navy and Air Force. India also has the highest percentage of women airline pilots in the world. I believe that investing in a girl child lifts up the entire family. Empowering women transforms the nation.
- India is known for its traditions. But the younger generation is also making it a hub of technology. In India, technology is not only about innovation but also about inclusion.
- Today, digital platforms are empowering the rights and dignity of people, while protecting privacy. Last year, out of every 100 real-time digital payments in the world, 46 happened in India.
India’s vision for fight against climate change: A message to World
- India became the only G20 country to meet its Paris commitment.
- At the Glasgow Summit, India proposed Mission LiFE — Lifestyle for Environment.
- This is a way to make sustainability a true people’s movement. The same spirit is also seen in the theme when we chair the G20 — “One Earth, One Family, One Future”.
India and USA relation: Multiple areas of cooperation
- US occupies a special place in the vision of India’s approach to the world.
- As When defence and aerospace in India grow, industries in the states of Washington, Arizona, Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina, and Pennsylvania thrive. When American companies grow, their research and development centres in India thrive.
- When India and the US work together on semi-conductors and critical minerals, it helps the world in making supply chains more diverse, resilient and reliable. Indeed, we were strangers in defence cooperation at the turn of the century. Now, the US has become one of our most important defence partners.
- Cooperation in the critical technology:
- One consequence of globalisation has been the over-concentration of supply chains. Both the nations has work together to diversify, decentralise, and democratise supply chains.
- Technology will determine security, prosperity and leadership in the 21st century and both countries established a new initiative for Critical and Emerging Technologies.
- It will serve humanity and seek solutions to the global challenges of climate change, hunger and health.
India’s message to World: Today is not era of war
- With the Ukraine conflict, war has returned to Europe. Since it involves major powers, the outcomes are severe. Countries of the Global South have been particularly affected.
- India has highlighted that , this is not an era of war. But it is one of dialogue and diplomacy. And, we all must do what we can to stop the bloodshed and human suffering.
India’s vision for free, open and inclusive Indo-Pacific:
- AS the dark clouds of coercion and confrontation are casting their shadow in the Indo-Pacific. The stability of the region has become one of the central concerns of India-US partnership.
- Both the nations share a vision of a free, open and inclusive Indo-Pacific, connected by secure seas, defined by international law, free from domination, and anchored in ASEAN centrality.
- A region where all nations, small and large, are free and fearless in their choices, where progress is not suffocated by impossible burdens of debt, where connectivity is not leveraged for strategic purposes
- For this purpose, India and USA work through regional institutions and with our partners from within the region and beyond. Of this, the Quad has emerged as a major force of good for the region.
Reforms that need to be made
- As the world emerges out of the pandemic, we must give shape to a new world order. Consideration, care and concern are the need of the hour. Giving a voice to the Global South is the way forward. That is why African Union should be given full membership of G20.
- There is need to revive multilateralism and reform multilateral institutions, with better resources and representation. That applies to all our global institutions of governance, especially the UN. When the world has changed, our institutions too must change.
Conclusion:
- Today, India-USA stand at a new dawn of relationship that will not only shape the destiny of two nations, but also that of the world. And together both the nations demonstrate that democracies matter and democracies deliver.
Editorial 2: Tech is the new driver of India-US diplomacy
Recent Context:
- Recently, India-US bilateral relations reach to new height with the incredibly ambitious agenda for technology cooperation, ranging from artificial intelligence to outer space and quantum computing to telecommunications.
About the recent visit of Indian Prime minister to USA that provides new insight:
- In a joint statement issued after the talks at the White House, the two leaders committed their governments to “facilitate greater technology sharing, co-development, and co-production opportunities between U.S. and Indian industry, government, and academic institutions.”
- They also directed the two bureaucracies to make “regular efforts to address export controls” and “enhance high technology commerce” between the two nations.
Historical past of technological relation of both countries:
- There was a brief flowering of India-US technology cooperation. US assisted India’s nuclear and space programmes in the 1950s and 1960s.
- India’s first nuclear power plant at Tarapur was built by General Electric and its first satellite by Ford Aerospace. The US also contributed to India’s Green Revolution.
- But As anti-Americanism gripped the Indian political class from the late 1960s, there was a deliberate attempt to snuff out academic and research links to the United States
- The US on its part, began to actively restrict technology cooperation with India as America’s post-war scientific internationalism was replaced by the non-proliferation theology.
- Although Indira and Rajiv Gandhi sought to restore India-US technology cooperation in the Cold War, it was hard to get going.
- Later It was the historic civil nuclear initiative unveiled by George W Bush and Manmohan Singh that broke through the paradigm of nonproliferation
Technology sharing is vital link of both nation
- To be sure, technology formed a running theme in the evolution of India-US ties since Independence. But it was a boutique element.
- At the best of times, technology cooperation showcased the Indian elite’s ambitions at the highest level however in bad times, it became a bone of political contention.
- As, India is eager to rescue Indian science and technology from excessive statism and bring the industry, especially the private sector, and the innovation communities into play.
- And US has sought to cut through a welter of regulations limiting US technology cooperation with India. If their plans unfold according to ambition, one will see the technology interface between the two countries rapidly broaden and thicken.
- As new productive forces unleashed by new technologies create possibilities to reboot the Indian and American economies, enhance their national security, and rearrange the global economic order.
- Therefore, India-US technological cooperation also opens the door for addressing global challenges such as climate change.
Conclusion:
- This significant technology bridge which has been empowered by the Modi-Biden plan, is all set to play a crucial role in reshaping the relations between the two countries.