News India gave grant of Rs 4,312 crore to Afghanistan, Nepal and Lanka from 2014-18: Govt

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India gave grant of Rs 4,312 crore to Afghanistan, Nepal and Lanka from 2014-18: Govt
In a written response to a question, V K Singh, minister of state in the External Affairs Ministry, said India gave a grant of Rs 2,088.19 crore to Afghanistan, a country torn by war and insurgency, between 2014 and 2018 (until January).
India has given a grant of Rs 4,312 crore to Afghanistan, Nepal and Sri Lanka between 2014 and January this year for development activities "in a spirit of promoting friendly ties", the government today informed Lok Sabha.
In a written response to a question, V K Singh, minister of state in the External Affairs Ministry, said India gave a grant of Rs 2,088.19 crore to Afghanistan, a country torn by war and insurgency, between 2014 and 2018 (until January).
Grants of Rs 1,199.09 crore and Rs 1,025.12 crore were given to Nepal and Sri Lanka respectively, he said.

"India has played an active role in rebuilding and reconstruction activities of several countries such as Afghanistan, Sri Lanka and Nepal. India's contribution to rebuilding efforts of these countries in a spirit of promoting friendly ties strengthens bilateral cooperation and promotes mutual goodwill," he said.


Nepal was hit by a 7.8 magnitude earthquake in 2015. Many of the country's historic sites were damaged, including temples and monuments. Nearly 9,000 people died.
India was one of the first countries to respond.
India has also been carrying out development projects in Sri Lanka, which has witnessed a bloody civil war in the past.
India gave grant of Rs 4,312 crore to Afghanistan, Nepal and Lanka from 2014-18: Govt
 
In race for influence with China, India investing more in neighbouring countries
India has sharpened its focus on development assistance for its neighbours, especially for high impact projects driven by local needs, as it finds itself in a race for influence in the region with China.

An array of projects, ranging from the nearly $300-million Salma or Afghan-India Friendship Dam to the Rooppur nuclear power plant being built in Bangladesh, have benefited from grants or lines of credit with low interest rates offered by Delhi.

Out of lines of credit worth $25 billion given to 61 countries around the world since 2012, almost $11.6 billion or 46% has gone to India’s neighbours, people familiar with the development programmes said on condition of anonymity.

Grants worth $4.2 billion have been provided to Saarc members, minus Pakistan, and Myanmar since 2013-14, compared to $1.67 billion in grants for these countries between 2008 and 2013, they added.

“Partnerships in the neighbourhood are a priority and the focus is on delivery and managing things more effectively so that projects are completed on time. The focus is also on completing lingering projects before we take up new ones,” added one of the people cited in the first instance.

This has resulted in a push for railway links with Nepal and Bangladesh, and railway projects within Myanmar.
The railway link between Nepal’s Janakpur and Jaynagar in Bihar is expected to be operational by the end of the year and India recently supplied 18 locomotives to Myanmar as part of a $679-million assistance package.
In Afghanistan, after completing the Afghan-India Friendship Dam and the Parliament building, India is set to take up the Shahtoot dam in the Kabul river basin, a project to supply much needed drinking water to the Afghan capital.

“This project is now moving towards the process of approvals and tendering,” one of the people said.
Another focus area in Afghanistan are small development projects, worth $1 million or less, with 560 such ranging from schools to health centres and women’s vocational training centres, already being launched in all 34 provinces of the country, including areas contested by the Taliban.

A total of $200 million has been committed for these projects, of which $120 million has been used.
Bangladesh has been largest beneficiary of lines of credit, having been provided $7.86 billion, a majority of it in the past four years. Much of the funds are meant for connectivity and infrastructure projects such as ports, railway lines and roads. India is now set to begin tendering for the transmission and distribution network for the 2.4 GWe Rooppur nuclear power plant being built in northwest Bangladesh jointly by India and Russia.

The Indian assistance, however, is dwarfed by the billions of dollars poured into the region by China.
Beijing does not publicise official figures for loans and assistance, though figures from the American Enterprise Institute show that between 2012 and 2018, China invested $8.06 billion in Myanmar, $43 billion in Bangladesh, $20 billion in Sri Lanka, $5.45 billion in Nepal and $420 million in Afghanistan.

The Chinese assistance has come with fears of “debt traps”, with observers citing the example of Sri Lanka’s Hambantota port, which Colombo recently handed over to Beijing along with 15,000 acres around it for 99 years to erase $1 billion in debt.

The people cited in the first instance were reluctant to characterise the Indian-aided projects, which are managed and implemented under the external affairs ministry’s development partnership administration as a race with China.
“The defining feature of our partnerships is that they are demand driven and need-based. It’s what the local governments want from us and part of their development trajectory,” said the first person.

“Our projects don’t push partners into problems of debt repayment,” a second person said. At the same time, the projects are aimed at improving connectivity with India, boosting trade opportunities and creating opportunities for Indian firms.

Nitin Pai, director of The Takshashila Institution, said these development partnerships are one way of signalling that as India becomes more prosperous, it is willing to share its prosperity with its neighbours.

“This can only be the first step as true development partnership needs open and free trade across the region, but some countries don’t want it,” he said. “There is also no point in getting into an aid race with China, which has no government controls and accountability on spending. India’s strength is in building grassroots democracy and pluralism, not propping up dictators.”
In race for influence with China, India investing more in neighbouring countries
 

In India’s Budget, a message to Afghan people that New Delhi isn’t switching off​

NEW DELHI: India on Tuesday allocated ₹200 crore as aid for Afghanistan in its budget for 2022-23, signalling New Delhi’s continuing commitment to the war-torn country, even as it made an outlay of ₹100 crore for the development of Iran’s Chabahar port.

The government also proposed an allocation of ₹360 crore as aid for the Maldives, a key part of India’s “Neighbourhood First” policy, and ₹600 crore for Myanmar, which is currently dealing with an economic crisis in the wake of last year’s coup and the fallout of the Covid-19 pandemic.

These allocations were part of the total outlay of ₹17,250 crore for the ministry for the next fiscal, down from the ₹18,155 crore allocated in 2021-22. The revised estimate for the ministry’s expenditure during the current fiscal was ₹16,000 crore, and people familiar with the matter said the figure was lower than usual as activities such as foreign visits and projects were affected by the pandemic.

As usual, India’s close partner Bhutan got the lion’s share – ₹2,266 crore – of the total outlay of ₹6,292 crore as aid to foreign countries during 2022-23. However, this was far lower than the ₹3,005 crore allocated for Bhutan in 2021-22.

India has not recognised the Taliban setup that assumed power in Afghanistan in mid-August last year after the collapse of the Ashraf Ghani government, but it has said it will continue to provide assistance to the Afghan people who are currently grappling with a humanitarian crisis. The people cited above said the allocation of ₹200 crore as aid for Afghanistan reflected the government’s continuing commitment to the Afghan people.

“It is a signal that India is not switching off,” one of the people said.

The amount allocated for the next fiscal will be used to meet expenses related to projects that India has been implementing in Afghanistan, to provide relief materials and humanitarian assistance and to cover existing schemes such as scholarships for Afghan students, the people said.

The allocation for 2022-23 was lower than the outlay of ₹350 crore for the current fiscal.

Following the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, India emerged as the largest regional donor for the country with pledges of almost $3 billion. India has executed several key infrastructure projects, including the construction of a new Parliament building, the 218-km Zaranj-Delaram highway and the $290-million Friendship Dam. However, India-funded development projects came to a standstill after the Taliban takeover.

India has airlifted 6.6 tonnes of medicines and 500,000 doses of Covid-19 vaccines to Afghanistan and is working with Pakistan to transport 50,000 tonnes of wheat via land routes. This aid has been welcomed by the Taliban.

The government also made an outlay of ₹100 crore for developing Iran’s Chabahar port – the same as the allocation for the current fiscal – as part of efforts to boost the prospects of the facility on the Gulf of Oman for connectivity with Afghanistan and Central Asia. India and the Central Asian states are exploring the possibility of creating a joint working group on using Chabahar port.

India has committed grant assistance of $85 million and a credit facility of $150 million for developing Shahid Beheshti terminal at Chabahar port, for which the US has granted a special waiver from sanctions imposed on Iran.

The budget for 2022-23 also included an outlay of ₹900 crore for Mauritius, ₹750 crore for Nepal, ₹300 crore for Bangladesh, ₹200 crore for Sri Lanka, ₹14 crore for Seychelles, ₹12 crore for Mongolia, ₹250 crore for African countries, ₹140 crore for Eurasian states, ₹40 crore for Latin American countries and ₹150 crore for developing countries.

There was also an allocation of ₹447 crore to support international training programmes. The outlay for embassies and missions was hiked from ₹3,240 crore during 2021-22 to ₹3,769 crore in the next fiscal.
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In India’s Budget, a message to Afghan people that New Delhi isn’t switching off

India hasn’t recognised the Taliban setup that assumed power in Afghanistan last year but has said it will continue to provide assistance to the Afghan people
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