📝The Sir Creek Issue: Significance
🔶 Over the years, the creek has also changed its course considerably. If one country agrees to the other’s traditional position, then the former will end up losing a vast amount of Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).
🔶 A vital reason for two countries locking horns over this creek is the possible presence of great oil and gas concentration under the sea, which are currently unexploited thanks to the impending deadlock on the issue.
🔶Because of various factors, the Sir Creek area is also a great fishing destination for hundreds of fishermen from both India and Pakistan. Sir Creek is considered to be among the largest fishing grounds in Asia. In the desperation for a great catch, many of their boats stray across the perceived boundaries, and they end up being arrested by the other side.
🔶 Maritime security concerns were heightened since November 2008, when 10 terrorists from the Lashkar-e-Taiba left in a Pakistani boat for Mumbai.
🔶 Over the years, the creek has also changed its course considerably. If one country agrees to the other’s traditional position, then the former will end up losing a vast amount of Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).
🔶 A vital reason for two countries locking horns over this creek is the possible presence of great oil and gas concentration under the sea, which are currently unexploited thanks to the impending deadlock on the issue.
🔶Because of various factors, the Sir Creek area is also a great fishing destination for hundreds of fishermen from both India and Pakistan. Sir Creek is considered to be among the largest fishing grounds in Asia. In the desperation for a great catch, many of their boats stray across the perceived boundaries, and they end up being arrested by the other side.
🔶 Maritime security concerns were heightened since November 2008, when 10 terrorists from the Lashkar-e-Taiba left in a Pakistani boat for Mumbai.
📝Democratic Transition in Maldives
🔶Maumoon Abdul Gauoom served as the president of Maldives from 1978 to 2008.
🔶 In 2008 under pressure from the civil society democratic reforms were initiated and a new constitution was adopted
🔶Mohamed Nasheed was the first democratically-elected President of Maldives in 2008. He was made to step down after a series of events that has been described in some quarters as a coup in 2012.
🔶Ever since the Indian Ocean archipelago is witnessing political tussles.
🔶Nasheed had taken refuge at Indian High Commission once, fearing arrest under the regime of his successor.
🔶In 2013 Abdulla Yameen was elected president in 2013
🔶Nasheed Was jailed for 13 years in 2015 on terrorism charges, his conviction was widely condemned internationally. In 2016 Mohd. Nasheed received poltical asylum in the UK
🔶Maumoon Abdul Gauoom served as the president of Maldives from 1978 to 2008.
🔶 In 2008 under pressure from the civil society democratic reforms were initiated and a new constitution was adopted
🔶Mohamed Nasheed was the first democratically-elected President of Maldives in 2008. He was made to step down after a series of events that has been described in some quarters as a coup in 2012.
🔶Ever since the Indian Ocean archipelago is witnessing political tussles.
🔶Nasheed had taken refuge at Indian High Commission once, fearing arrest under the regime of his successor.
🔶In 2013 Abdulla Yameen was elected president in 2013
🔶Nasheed Was jailed for 13 years in 2015 on terrorism charges, his conviction was widely condemned internationally. In 2016 Mohd. Nasheed received poltical asylum in the UK
📝India’s Contribution in Reconstruction Efforts
🔸 India has committed over 2 billion US$ for development efforts in Afghanistan.
🔸It has financed and built significant projects such as:
1.Delaram Zaranj Highway,
2. Parliament Building,
3. India Afghanistan Friendship Dam/Selma Dam, Hari River, Heart Province Transmission lines to Kabul.
🔸 While it has avoided its own military presence, India views foreign military presence in Afghanistan as indispensable in promoting political stability and development in the country. The USA has also urged India to get involved more.
🔸 India believes in invest and endure strategy for Afghanistan.
🔸 India has committed over 2 billion US$ for development efforts in Afghanistan.
🔸It has financed and built significant projects such as:
1.Delaram Zaranj Highway,
2. Parliament Building,
3. India Afghanistan Friendship Dam/Selma Dam, Hari River, Heart Province Transmission lines to Kabul.
🔸 While it has avoided its own military presence, India views foreign military presence in Afghanistan as indispensable in promoting political stability and development in the country. The USA has also urged India to get involved more.
🔸 India believes in invest and endure strategy for Afghanistan.
📝India-Maldives Relations
🛡️Background
🔶An archipelago of 1,200 coral islands, spanning roughly 115 square miles, Maldives is Asia's smallest nation, both by area and population.
🔶 India was among the first to recognise Maldives after its independence in 1965 and to establish diplomatic relations with the country.
🔶 Indian Coast Guard's Dornier was the first to land at the Ibrahim Nasir Airport with relief and supplies after the tsunami of December 26, 2004.
🔶 India maintains a naval presence in Maldives, at the request of the Maldives, since 2009.
🔶 December 5, 2014, India dispatched “water aid” to the Maldivian capital of Male, after a fire destroyed the generator of its biggest water treatment plant.
🔶The first-ever presidential elections under a multi-candidate, multi-party system were held in October 2008 only to be removed in 2012 and replaced by Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom in a 2013 election.
🛡️Background
🔶An archipelago of 1,200 coral islands, spanning roughly 115 square miles, Maldives is Asia's smallest nation, both by area and population.
🔶 India was among the first to recognise Maldives after its independence in 1965 and to establish diplomatic relations with the country.
🔶 Indian Coast Guard's Dornier was the first to land at the Ibrahim Nasir Airport with relief and supplies after the tsunami of December 26, 2004.
🔶 India maintains a naval presence in Maldives, at the request of the Maldives, since 2009.
🔶 December 5, 2014, India dispatched “water aid” to the Maldivian capital of Male, after a fire destroyed the generator of its biggest water treatment plant.
🔶The first-ever presidential elections under a multi-candidate, multi-party system were held in October 2008 only to be removed in 2012 and replaced by Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom in a 2013 election.
The U.S. Trade Representative highlighted IP challenges in India in its annual Special 301 report.
The report highlighted a range of issues in domains ranging from copyright and piracy to trademark counterfeiting and trade secrets, saying that India remained one of the world’s most challenging major economies with respect to protection and enforcement of IP.
It has decided to retain India on its Priority Watch List along with six other countries- Argentina, Chile, China, Indonesia, Russia and Venezuela.
U.S. trade law (“Special 301”) requires an annual review of intellectual property protection and market access practices in foreign countries.
Trading partners that currently present the most significant concerns regarding IP rights are placed either on the Priority Watch List or Watch List
What are the Indian Issues Highlighted by USTR?
Patent issues continued “to be of particular concern in India,” highlighting the threat of patent revocations, lack of presumption of patent validity and narrow patentability criteria as issues which “impact companies across different sectors”.
The issue of narrow patentability criteria was again raised in relation to Section 3(d) of the Indian Patent Act, with the report saying that in the pharmaceutical sector, the United States “continued to monitor the restriction on patent-eligible subject matter in Section 3(d) of the Indian Patents Act and its impacts.
The report highlighted a range of issues in domains ranging from copyright and piracy to trademark counterfeiting and trade secrets, saying that India remained one of the world’s most challenging major economies with respect to protection and enforcement of IP.
It has decided to retain India on its Priority Watch List along with six other countries- Argentina, Chile, China, Indonesia, Russia and Venezuela.
U.S. trade law (“Special 301”) requires an annual review of intellectual property protection and market access practices in foreign countries.
Trading partners that currently present the most significant concerns regarding IP rights are placed either on the Priority Watch List or Watch List
What are the Indian Issues Highlighted by USTR?
Patent issues continued “to be of particular concern in India,” highlighting the threat of patent revocations, lack of presumption of patent validity and narrow patentability criteria as issues which “impact companies across different sectors”.
The issue of narrow patentability criteria was again raised in relation to Section 3(d) of the Indian Patent Act, with the report saying that in the pharmaceutical sector, the United States “continued to monitor the restriction on patent-eligible subject matter in Section 3(d) of the Indian Patents Act and its impacts.
📝 Security Factor in the ASEAN region
🔸Faced with growing traditional and non-traditional challenges, politico-security cooperation is a
key and an emerging pillar of this relationship:
▫️Maritime security-Safeguarding Sea lanes of communication and combating piracy
▫️Radicalisation and terrorism
▫️ Drug trafficking and Human trafficking
▫️South China Sea disputes
🔸Faced with growing traditional and non-traditional challenges, politico-security cooperation is a
key and an emerging pillar of this relationship:
▫️Maritime security-Safeguarding Sea lanes of communication and combating piracy
▫️Radicalisation and terrorism
▫️ Drug trafficking and Human trafficking
▫️South China Sea disputes
📝The Indian Ocean
🔸 Indian Ocean, covers approximately one-fifth of the total ocean area of the world.
🔸 It is the smallest, geologically youngest, and physically most complex of the world’s three major oceans.
🔸 It stretches for more than 6,200 miles (10,000 km) between the southern tips of Africa and Australia and, without its marginal seas, has an area of about 28,360,000 square miles (73,440,000 square km).
🔸 The decision by the International Hydrographic Organization in 2000 to delimit a fifth ocean, the Southern Ocean, removed the portion of the Indian Ocean south of 60 degrees south latitude.
🔸 The Indian Ocean’s average depth is 12,990 feet (3,960 metres), and its deepest point, in the Sunda Deep of the Java Trench off the southern coast of the island of Java (Indonesia), is 24,442 feet (7,450 metres).
🔸 Indian Ocean, covers approximately one-fifth of the total ocean area of the world.
🔸 It is the smallest, geologically youngest, and physically most complex of the world’s three major oceans.
🔸 It stretches for more than 6,200 miles (10,000 km) between the southern tips of Africa and Australia and, without its marginal seas, has an area of about 28,360,000 square miles (73,440,000 square km).
🔸 The decision by the International Hydrographic Organization in 2000 to delimit a fifth ocean, the Southern Ocean, removed the portion of the Indian Ocean south of 60 degrees south latitude.
🔸 The Indian Ocean’s average depth is 12,990 feet (3,960 metres), and its deepest point, in the Sunda Deep of the Java Trench off the southern coast of the island of Java (Indonesia), is 24,442 feet (7,450 metres).
📝 Security status between India and Myanmar
🔸The Indian Armed Forces have traditionally had friendly relations with their Myanmar counterparts.
🔸Both countries face problems of armed separatist groups using each other’s soil.
🔸The KIA, an insurgent group in Myanmar, has backed India’s north-eastern separatist groups such as ULFA and the NSCN (Khaplang), in consultation with government officials in China’s neighbouring Yunnan province.
🔸The Indian Armed Forces have traditionally had friendly relations with their Myanmar counterparts.
🔸Both countries face problems of armed separatist groups using each other’s soil.
🔸The KIA, an insurgent group in Myanmar, has backed India’s north-eastern separatist groups such as ULFA and the NSCN (Khaplang), in consultation with government officials in China’s neighbouring Yunnan province.
📝RCEP Negotiations: From Trade to Economic Partnership
🔸While the India-ASEAN Trade in Goods Agreement was inked and enforced from January 1,2010, India’s goods trade deficit with ASEAN widened from $4.98 billion in 2010-11 to $14.75 billion in 2015-16, and then narrowed to $9.56 billion in 2016-17.
🔸The huge goods trade deficit has led to questions on whether the pact is only helping ASEAN nations and not benefiting India.
🔸In this context the Proposed Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is significant. The 19th round of the Trade Negotiating Committee meetings and other related meetings were held from 17 to 28 July 2017 in Hyderabad, India. 20th round of negotiations for RCEP were held in Incheon, Korea, from October 17 to 28, 2017.
🔸RCEP is a proposed comprehensive regional economic integration agreement or a mega Free Trade Agreement amongst the 10-ASEAN countries and its six Free Trade Agreements.
🔸While the India-ASEAN Trade in Goods Agreement was inked and enforced from January 1,2010, India’s goods trade deficit with ASEAN widened from $4.98 billion in 2010-11 to $14.75 billion in 2015-16, and then narrowed to $9.56 billion in 2016-17.
🔸The huge goods trade deficit has led to questions on whether the pact is only helping ASEAN nations and not benefiting India.
🔸In this context the Proposed Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) is significant. The 19th round of the Trade Negotiating Committee meetings and other related meetings were held from 17 to 28 July 2017 in Hyderabad, India. 20th round of negotiations for RCEP were held in Incheon, Korea, from October 17 to 28, 2017.
🔸RCEP is a proposed comprehensive regional economic integration agreement or a mega Free Trade Agreement amongst the 10-ASEAN countries and its six Free Trade Agreements.
📝Significance of the Indian Ocean
🔸Four critically important access waterways are the Suez Canal (Egypt), Bab el Mandeb (Djibouti-Yemen), Strait of Hormuz (Iran-Oman), and Strait of Malacca (Indonesia-Malaysia).
🔸 The Indian Ocean provides major sea routes connecting the Middle East, Africa, and East Asia with Europe and the Americas. It carries a particularly heavy traffic of petroleum and petroleum products from the oilfields of the Persian Gulf and Indonesia.
🔸 It has significant fisheries resources to the bordering countries for domestic consumption and export. Fishing fleets from Russia, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan also exploit the Indian Ocean, mainly for shrimp and tuna.
🔸 Large reserves of hydrocarbons are being tapped in the offshore areas of Saudi Arabia,Iran, India, and western Australia. An estimated 40% of the world's offshore oil production comes from the Indian Ocean.
🔸Four critically important access waterways are the Suez Canal (Egypt), Bab el Mandeb (Djibouti-Yemen), Strait of Hormuz (Iran-Oman), and Strait of Malacca (Indonesia-Malaysia).
🔸 The Indian Ocean provides major sea routes connecting the Middle East, Africa, and East Asia with Europe and the Americas. It carries a particularly heavy traffic of petroleum and petroleum products from the oilfields of the Persian Gulf and Indonesia.
🔸 It has significant fisheries resources to the bordering countries for domestic consumption and export. Fishing fleets from Russia, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan also exploit the Indian Ocean, mainly for shrimp and tuna.
🔸 Large reserves of hydrocarbons are being tapped in the offshore areas of Saudi Arabia,Iran, India, and western Australia. An estimated 40% of the world's offshore oil production comes from the Indian Ocean.
📝India Ocean: People and Regions
🔸Home to nearly 2.7 billion people, states whose shores are washed by the ocean are rich in cultural diversity and richness in languages, religions, traditions, arts and cuisines.
🔸 They vary considerably in terms of their areas, populations and levels of economic development.
🔸They may also be divided into a number of sub-regions (Australasia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, West Asia and Eastern & Southern Africa), each with their own regional groupings (such as ASEAN, SAARC, GCC and SADC, to name a few). Despite such diversity and differences, these countries are bound together by the Indian Ocean.
🔸Home to nearly 2.7 billion people, states whose shores are washed by the ocean are rich in cultural diversity and richness in languages, religions, traditions, arts and cuisines.
🔸 They vary considerably in terms of their areas, populations and levels of economic development.
🔸They may also be divided into a number of sub-regions (Australasia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, West Asia and Eastern & Southern Africa), each with their own regional groupings (such as ASEAN, SAARC, GCC and SADC, to name a few). Despite such diversity and differences, these countries are bound together by the Indian Ocean.
📝 Piracy in the Indian Ocean
🔸More than eighty countries, organizations, and industry groups participate in operations in the IOR under the auspices of the ad hoc, voluntary Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia (CGPCS), created in January 2009 in response to UN Security Council Resolution 1851 on Somali piracy and armed robbery at sea.
🔸 The International Maritime Bureau continues to report the territorial waters of littoral states and offshore waters as high risk for piracy and armed robbery against ships, particularly in the Gulf of Aden, along the east coast of Africa, the Bay of Bengal, and the Strait of Malacca;
🔸More than eighty countries, organizations, and industry groups participate in operations in the IOR under the auspices of the ad hoc, voluntary Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia (CGPCS), created in January 2009 in response to UN Security Council Resolution 1851 on Somali piracy and armed robbery at sea.
🔸 The International Maritime Bureau continues to report the territorial waters of littoral states and offshore waters as high risk for piracy and armed robbery against ships, particularly in the Gulf of Aden, along the east coast of Africa, the Bay of Bengal, and the Strait of Malacca;
📝 India and the Indian Ocean
🔸India has a coastline of 7,500 km and is surrounded by Oceans and Seas in three sides of its international boundaries.
🔸Independent India was a typical continental power, mostly due to its difficult land border disputes with China and Pakistan.
🔸During the Cold War days, India wanted that the major world powers should withdraw themselves from the Indian Ocean, presence of whom was actually a threat to India’s ideological inclination to the non-aligned movement.
🔸 Approximately 80 percent of India’s energy imports traverse through the Indian Ocean and its different channels.
🔸India has a coastline of 7,500 km and is surrounded by Oceans and Seas in three sides of its international boundaries.
🔸Independent India was a typical continental power, mostly due to its difficult land border disputes with China and Pakistan.
🔸During the Cold War days, India wanted that the major world powers should withdraw themselves from the Indian Ocean, presence of whom was actually a threat to India’s ideological inclination to the non-aligned movement.
🔸 Approximately 80 percent of India’s energy imports traverse through the Indian Ocean and its different channels.
📝The Indian Ocean
🔸 Indian Ocean, covers approximately one-fifth of the total ocean area of the world.
🔸 It is the smallest, geologically youngest, and physically most complex of the world’s three major oceans.
🔸 It stretches for more than 6,200 miles (10,000 km) between the southern tips of Africa and Australia and, without its marginal seas, has an area of about 28,360,000 square miles (73,440,000 square km).
🔸 The decision by the International Hydrographic Organization in 2000 to delimit a fifth ocean, the Southern Ocean, removed the portion of the Indian Ocean south of 60 degrees south latitude.
🔸 The Indian Ocean’s average depth is 12,990 feet (3,960 metres), and its deepest point, in the Sunda Deep of the Java Trench off the southern coast of the island of Java (Indonesia), is 24,442 feet (7,450 metres).
🔸 Indian Ocean, covers approximately one-fifth of the total ocean area of the world.
🔸 It is the smallest, geologically youngest, and physically most complex of the world’s three major oceans.
🔸 It stretches for more than 6,200 miles (10,000 km) between the southern tips of Africa and Australia and, without its marginal seas, has an area of about 28,360,000 square miles (73,440,000 square km).
🔸 The decision by the International Hydrographic Organization in 2000 to delimit a fifth ocean, the Southern Ocean, removed the portion of the Indian Ocean south of 60 degrees south latitude.
🔸 The Indian Ocean’s average depth is 12,990 feet (3,960 metres), and its deepest point, in the Sunda Deep of the Java Trench off the southern coast of the island of Java (Indonesia), is 24,442 feet (7,450 metres).
📝 Key Developments in Indian Ocean
🔸 U.S.-India Joint Strategic Vision for the Asia-Pacific and Indian Ocean Region released in January 2015.
🔸In March 2015 Prime Minister Modi Visited the Indian Ocean Neighbours: Mauritius,Seychelles and Srilanka
🔸In May 2015, it was reported that China was going to establish a naval base in the East African nation of Djibouti.
🔸 U.S.-India Joint Strategic Vision for the Asia-Pacific and Indian Ocean Region released in January 2015.
🔸In March 2015 Prime Minister Modi Visited the Indian Ocean Neighbours: Mauritius,Seychelles and Srilanka
🔸In May 2015, it was reported that China was going to establish a naval base in the East African nation of Djibouti.
📝 India-Seychelles
🔸 P.M Modi became the first Indian Prime Minister to visit Seychelles in 34 years.
🔸 Modi announced that India will give a second Dornier aircraft to the Island nation for coastal surveillance
🔸The two nations signed four agreements for cooperation in hydrography, renewable energy, infrastructure development and hydro-graphic survey.
🔸 Another important agreement is for infrastructure development in the Assumption Island.
🔸 P.M Modi became the first Indian Prime Minister to visit Seychelles in 34 years.
🔸 Modi announced that India will give a second Dornier aircraft to the Island nation for coastal surveillance
🔸The two nations signed four agreements for cooperation in hydrography, renewable energy, infrastructure development and hydro-graphic survey.
🔸 Another important agreement is for infrastructure development in the Assumption Island.
📝Project Mausam
▫️ Project ‘Mausam’ is the initiative of Ministry of Culture to be implemented by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) as the nodal agency with research support of the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA) and National Museum as associate bodies.
▫️ Project ‘Mausam’ was launched in the 38th Session of World Heritage Committee meeting which was held at Doha in June, 2014.
▫️ This project aims to explore the multi-faceted Indian Ocean ‘world’ – collating archaeological and historical research in order to document the diversity of cultural,
commercial and religious interactions in the Indian Ocean – extending from East Africa,
the Arabian Peninsula, the Indian Subcontinent and Sri Lanka to the Southeast Asian archipelago.
▫️ Project ‘Mausam’ is the initiative of Ministry of Culture to be implemented by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) as the nodal agency with research support of the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA) and National Museum as associate bodies.
▫️ Project ‘Mausam’ was launched in the 38th Session of World Heritage Committee meeting which was held at Doha in June, 2014.
▫️ This project aims to explore the multi-faceted Indian Ocean ‘world’ – collating archaeological and historical research in order to document the diversity of cultural,
commercial and religious interactions in the Indian Ocean – extending from East Africa,
the Arabian Peninsula, the Indian Subcontinent and Sri Lanka to the Southeast Asian archipelago.
⬜Indian Ocean countries identified under Project Mausam.
📝 Blue Economy
🔸The Blue Economy is sustainable use of ocean resources for economic growth, improved livelihoods and jobs, while preserving the health of marine and coastal ecosystem. The Blue Economy encompasses many activities that impact every one (World Bank) .
🔸The objective of the Blue Economy is to promote smart, sustainable and inclusive growth and employment opportunities within the Indian Ocean region maritime economic activities.
🔸The Blue Economy is determined to initiate appropriate programs for sustainable harnessing of ocean resources, research and develop relevant sectors of oceanography,
assess stock marine resources, introduce marine aquaculture deep sea/long line fishing and biotechnology and develop human resources. (IORA)
📝 Blue Economy
🔸The Blue Economy is sustainable use of ocean resources for economic growth, improved livelihoods and jobs, while preserving the health of marine and coastal ecosystem. The Blue Economy encompasses many activities that impact every one (World Bank) .
🔸The objective of the Blue Economy is to promote smart, sustainable and inclusive growth and employment opportunities within the Indian Ocean region maritime economic activities.
🔸The Blue Economy is determined to initiate appropriate programs for sustainable harnessing of ocean resources, research and develop relevant sectors of oceanography,
assess stock marine resources, introduce marine aquaculture deep sea/long line fishing and biotechnology and develop human resources. (IORA)
📝The Teesta Dispute
🔶Historically, the root of the disputes over the river can be located in the report of the Boundary Commission (BC), which was set up in 1947 under Sir Cyril Radcliffe to demarcate the boundary line between West Bengal (India) and East Bengal (Pakistan, then Bangladesh from 1971).
🔶During East Bengal’s days as a part of Pakistan, no serious dialogue took place on water issues between India and East Pakistan. In 1972, the India-Bangladesh Joint Rivers Commission was established.
🔶The Teesta river originates in Sikkim and flows through West Bengal as well as Bangladesh. India claims a share of 55 percent of the river's water.
🔶The river is Bangladesh's fourth largest transboundary river for irrigation and fishing.
🔶 The Teesta's floodplain covers 2,750sq km in Bangladesh. Of the river's catchment - an area of land where water collects - 83 percent is in India and 17 percent is in Bangladesh.
🔶Historically, the root of the disputes over the river can be located in the report of the Boundary Commission (BC), which was set up in 1947 under Sir Cyril Radcliffe to demarcate the boundary line between West Bengal (India) and East Bengal (Pakistan, then Bangladesh from 1971).
🔶During East Bengal’s days as a part of Pakistan, no serious dialogue took place on water issues between India and East Pakistan. In 1972, the India-Bangladesh Joint Rivers Commission was established.
🔶The Teesta river originates in Sikkim and flows through West Bengal as well as Bangladesh. India claims a share of 55 percent of the river's water.
🔶The river is Bangladesh's fourth largest transboundary river for irrigation and fishing.
🔶 The Teesta's floodplain covers 2,750sq km in Bangladesh. Of the river's catchment - an area of land where water collects - 83 percent is in India and 17 percent is in Bangladesh.
📝 People to People ties b/w India and Israel
🔸 Major waves of immigration of Jews from India to Israel took place in the 1950s and 1960s.There are approximately 85,000 Jews of Indian-origin in Israel. The majority is from Maharashtra (Bene Israelis) with relatively smaller numbers from Kerala (Cochini Jews)and Kolkata (Baghdadi Jews).
🔸 In recent years, some Indian Jews from North Eastern states of India (Bnei Menashe) have been immigrating to Israel. While the older generation still maintains an Indian lifestyle and storng cultural links with India, the younger generation is more fully integrated into Israeli society. However, the Know India Programme, which provide Indian origin persons
opportunities to visit India, have been received well by the younger generation of Indian jews.
🔸 There are about 12,500 Indian citizens in Israel, of whom around 11,500 are care-givers.Others are diamond traders, some IT professionals, and students.
🔸 For Israelis India has emerged as a key tourist destination.
🔸 Major waves of immigration of Jews from India to Israel took place in the 1950s and 1960s.There are approximately 85,000 Jews of Indian-origin in Israel. The majority is from Maharashtra (Bene Israelis) with relatively smaller numbers from Kerala (Cochini Jews)and Kolkata (Baghdadi Jews).
🔸 In recent years, some Indian Jews from North Eastern states of India (Bnei Menashe) have been immigrating to Israel. While the older generation still maintains an Indian lifestyle and storng cultural links with India, the younger generation is more fully integrated into Israeli society. However, the Know India Programme, which provide Indian origin persons
opportunities to visit India, have been received well by the younger generation of Indian jews.
🔸 There are about 12,500 Indian citizens in Israel, of whom around 11,500 are care-givers.Others are diamond traders, some IT professionals, and students.
🔸 For Israelis India has emerged as a key tourist destination.
📝Defence and Security ties between India And Israel
🔸 India imports important defence technologies from Israel.
🔸 India is the number one export target of the Israel defence industry. Nearly 41 % of Israel
defence exports are to India hence, India’s defence import sustains Israel,defence industry.
🔸 However, between 2005 and 2014, it accounted for 7 percent of military equipment
deliveries, the third highest after Russia and the United States.
🔸 There are regular exchanges between the armed forces and defence personnel. Air Chief
Marshal, Arup Raha, visited Israel in March, 2016 while Israeli Naval and Air Force Chiefs
visited India in 2015. INS Trikand made a port call at the Haifa port in August, 2015.
🔸In February 2014, India and Israel signed three important agreements on:
o Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters,
o Cooperation in Homeland and Public Security, and
o Protection of Classified Material
🔸 India imports important defence technologies from Israel.
🔸 India is the number one export target of the Israel defence industry. Nearly 41 % of Israel
defence exports are to India hence, India’s defence import sustains Israel,defence industry.
🔸 However, between 2005 and 2014, it accounted for 7 percent of military equipment
deliveries, the third highest after Russia and the United States.
🔸 There are regular exchanges between the armed forces and defence personnel. Air Chief
Marshal, Arup Raha, visited Israel in March, 2016 while Israeli Naval and Air Force Chiefs
visited India in 2015. INS Trikand made a port call at the Haifa port in August, 2015.
🔸In February 2014, India and Israel signed three important agreements on:
o Mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal Matters,
o Cooperation in Homeland and Public Security, and
o Protection of Classified Material