Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday emphasised that the Government was pursuing the India Middle East Corridor project which has long term considerations and that it would not be dependent on one or the other major event of concern. “It is something in which the vision will drive the implementation in the long run. It is going to be pursued because India has very good relations with the Middle-East built very carefully by Prime Minister Narendra Modi,” Sitharaman said, during a virtual interaction at the India Global Forum (IGF).
India has a lot at stake in the IMEC, an ambitious transcontinental transit infrastructure project launched on the sidelines of the G20 summit in New Delhi. However, escalating tensons between Tel Aviv and Gaza has cast a shadow on the project.
The Finance Minister also highlighted the fast pace at which the Indian economy was growing amidst the current global scenario and underlined the importance of GST ushered in by Arun Jaitley under the principle of ‘One Nation, One Tax’. Terming it as a good example of positive Centre-state relationship and the federal structure, Sitharaman noted that decisions are taken together and most of the decisions are unanimous. “The GST Council, the constitutional body was created through a great deal of effort by the Prime Minister,” she added.
Sitharaman also highlighted India’s relationship with Africa. Since PM Modi came to power in 2014, it has made it a point to promote tariff-free, quota-free relations with the least developed countries of Africa. “On development related activities, Africa received about USD 32 billion or 38 per cent of all credit extended by India in the last decade. India is one of the largest suppliers of generic medicines to Africa, making it available at affordable rates for African citizens,” Sitharaman observed. India had formally launched the tele-education project ‘e-VidyaBharti’ and tele-medicine project ‘e-ArogyaBharti’, which is focused on providing free tele-education for over 500 courses to 15,000 students and free tele-medicine courses to 1,000 doctors and paramedics in various African countries. “India-Africa Defence Dialogue (IADD) also happened on the sidelines of the Defence Expo at Lucknow and Gandhinagar,” Sitharaman said, referring to India’s defence cooperation with many African countries including Comoros, Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania, Mozambique, South Africa and Madagascar which are members of the Indian Ocean Rim Agreement.