India-Bangladesh ties reach outstanding heights during HV Shringla's tenure

India's departing High Commi-ssioner to Bangladesh Harsh Vardhan Shringla who will now be appointed as the Indian envoy to the United States leaves behind a scintillating legacy of enhancing the bonds with Bangladesh and elevating the relationship to outstanding heights.

Let's have a glance over the achievements of Harsh Vardhan Shringla in terms of expanding India-Bangladesh ties.Harsh Vardhan Shringla came to Bangladesh in January 2016. Since then he has been working for all-inclusive enhancement of bilateral ties and amazing progress has been made in the fields of development partnership, connectivity, trade, commerce and investments, defense cooperation and augmentation of brotherly bonds between Bangladesh and India on many more turfs.

Cooperation between Bangladesh and India on the pastures of nuclear, space, electronics and information technology also widened between India and Bangladesh during Harsh Vardhan Shringla's tenure.

Most striking achievement in his term has been the gearing up of contacts between the people of both countries. This has been made possible by a number of initiatives launched by him to make cross-border movement of people easier and faster.

In the last three years, some of the notable measures taken in this regard include liberalizing the visa regime to issue five years multiple entry visas to Bangladesh freedom fighters and senior citizens; multiple entry tourist and business visas of maximum permissible duration; organization of special visa camps on the occasion of Eid (May-June 2016) and for students (October 2016) and Armed Forces personnel (February 2017); move towards a completely appointment-less system under which applicants can deposit applications on a walk-in basis (securing online appointments for submitting Indian visa applications was a major issue for many Bangladesh nationals); special counters for senior citizens and freedom fighters; special consideration for women applicants; cashless transactions to reduce turnaround time; assistance through various channels including social media and hotline services and so on. To further streamline and facilitate the visa application process, the largest Indian Visa Application Center in the world was inaugurated during the visit of the Home Minister of India to Bangladesh in July 2018.

Some of the major accomplishments in the bilateral affiliations between India and Bangladesh in the last 3 years are as follows.

VISITS BY HIGH-PROFILE INDIAN OFFICIALS TO BANGLADESH

*    Visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Bangladesh in June 2015 followed by visits of the Indian Ministers of Defence (first ever visit of an Indian Defence Minister to Bangladesh); Finance; External Affairs; Home; Petroleum; Commerce and Civil Aviation; etc.

*    10 meetings between Prime Minister Modi and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina; 6 video conferences; and 5 telephone calls

*   19 development projects inaugurated jointly by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina

*    Settlement of India-Bangladesh land and maritime boundaries, pending since 1947

*   Signing of over 90 bilateral agreements in new areas such as space, IT, electronics, cyber security, civil nuclear energy, shipping etcetera.

AIDING BANGLADESH'S DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS

*    India's development assistance to Bangladesh expanded from US$ 3 billion in 2015 to US$ 8 billion

*    Projects fully funded by the Government of India worth Taka 1500 crores under implementation

FORWARD MARCH ON BUSINESS TURF

*    Trade between the two countries increased by 31.5 % from US$ 7 billion to US $ 9.3 billion

*    Bangladesh's exports to India growing at a rapid pace (106.4% in 2017-18)

*    Indian exports to Bangladesh grew by 26.3% in 2017-18

*   Indian investments in the pipeline in Bangladesh increased from US$ 3 billion to US$ 10 billion

*    Bangladesh has emerged as India's largest trade partner in South Asia

BROADER MAGNITUDE OF LINKAGES BETWEEN BANGLADESH AND INDIA

*   Four of the pre-1965 rail links between India and Bangladesh made operational; remaining two by 2019

*    3 new railway links between India and Bangladesh under implementation / consideration

*    Launching of end-to-end customs and immigration services for Kolkata - Dhaka Maitri Express

*    Launching of train - Kolkata-Khulna; new bus services between Kolkata - Khulna; Dhaka - Shillong / Guwahati

*    Commencement of coastal shipping services between Kolkata and Pangaon and other ports of Bangladesh

*    24×7 movement of cargo services at Petrapole-Benapole

COOPERATION WITH ENERGY SECTOR

*    Construction of India-Bangladesh Friendship Pipeline for diesel supply from India (Siliguri) to Bangladesh (Parbatipur)

*    Supply of almost 1200 MW of electricity from India to Bangladesh (around 10% of power generation in Bangladesh)

*    Construction of 1320 MW Rampal power plant

*    Feasibility study to integrate LNG grids of India and Bangladesh

COOPERATION WITH TRAINING PROGRAMS AND SKILL DEVELOPMENT

*    4,000 Bangladesh civil service officers trained in India

*   Training of 1,500 judicial services officers underway

*    6 batches of 100-member youth delegation

*   9,000 student visas to Bangladesh students

*    100 patients who are freedom fighters per year being treated in Indian Armed Forces hospitals from free of cost from 2018

*    Five year multiple entry visas to around 2000 Muktijoddhas from 2017 to date

*    More than Taka 10 crore disbursed under Muktijoddha scholarship and about 3,500 students benefited from this scheme since 2015. (Over Taka 23 crore disbursed and more than 13,000 students benefited from the scheme since its inception in 2006)

*    'Nutan Bharat- Bangladesh Maitree Muktijoddha Santan Scholarship' scheme announced in 2017

*    More than 21,000 Bangladeshi students stand to benefit from the disbursal of Taka 52 crore through these schemes by FY 2021-22

STRENGTHENING CULTURAL TIES

*    Establishment of ICCR Chairs for Hindi and Urdu languages at Dhaka University

*    More than 300 cultural events and seminars by Indira Gandhi Cultural Centre (IGCC)

*    More than 6000 Bangladeshi students were enrolled in various courses of IGCC

COOPERATION WITH CIVIL NUCLEAR PROGRAM

*    Tripartite cooperation among India, Bangladesh and Russia for the Rooppur nuclear plant in Bangladesh

SIMPLIFYING INDIAN VISA APPLICATION PROCESS

*    Problems faced by Bangladesh nationals in accessing Indian visa fully resolved

*    Three-fold increase in visas issued from 5 lakh in 2015 to 14.5 lakh in 2018

*    In September 2018, a record number of 134,960 visas for Bangladesh nationals issued

*    Largest (18,500 square feet) visa application centEr in the world opened by Home Ministers of India and Bangladesh at Jamuna Future Park in July 2018

*   Restrictions against Bangladesh nationals visiting Sikkim, Laddakh, Arunachal and other protected areas removed.

Shoeb Chowdhury, Chairman of the Editorial Board of The Asian Age highly applauded Harsh Vardhan Shringla for his enormous support for bolstering the friendly relations between Bangladesh and India. Harsh Vardhan Shringla enabled Bangladeshi media personalities to visit India and exchange views and thoughts with Indian journalists. In this way Harsh Vardhan Shringla has set a fabulous example of constructive diplomacy.

India has always been Bangladesh's ally. India comprehensively aided Bangladesh during the Liberation War of 1971. All patriotic Bangladeshi people look forward to the sustenance of amity between India and Bangladesh all the way ahead.


The writer is Editor-in-Chief,
The Asian Age