The Hindu Business Line : FUELLING A RELATIONSHIP

Supply of nuclear fuel to the Tarapur plant — the first consignment of 30 tonnes reached the country the day the Russian Prime Minister, Mr Mikhail Fradkov, began his three-day visit last week — was the centrepiece of Indo-Russian bilateral developments in recent times, there being little doubt that India will benefit immensely from the supply. But, clearly, there is more to Indo-Russian relations than just the nuclear fuel (the Russians are also involved in building the two Kudankulam nuclear power plants of 1,000 MW each), but where not much progress has happened in recent years leave alone during Mr Fradkov's visit.

Admittedly, some headway has been made in the hydrocarbons sector with Indian oil companies foraying into oil exploration and production (the Sakhalin fields, for instance), which hold out a lot of promise. During Mr Fradkov's visit, a memorandum of understanding was signed between IndianOil and a Russian company on building of pipelines, an area of Russian expertise. But beyond this, the visit produced nothing for the oil and gas sector apart from exhortations for assistance from the Indian side and promises of help from the visitors. A joint study group has been set up to expand cooperation in trade and investment to raise the two-way trade to $10 billion by 2010. Since 2001-02 there has been a continuous decline in Indian exports (except for 2003-04) with the trade deficit in 2004-05 being $1.3 billion on a total trade of $1.9 billion. Since the days of the NDA regime, the ground has been gone over repeatedly on how to improve the trade figures but, as the record shows, the results have not been satisfactory.

As for specific subjects, New Delhi has more than once drawn Moscow's attention to the high duty differential on import of bulk and packaged tea, which has discouraged export of quality packaged tea to Russia, as also to the issue of grant of geographical indication for Darjeeling tea. India has asked for early finalisation and signing of the draft inter-governmental agreement on higher offtake of Indian tobacco by Russia (once the single largest buyer). Simplification of business visa procedures also figured in past discussions not to speak of a more efficient use of the rupee-rouble fund. Increased Defence cooperation (such as the supply and manufacture of aircraft for the IAF) could be a promising area, but for all practical purposes this would mean harking back to the past. Strategically, such cooperation should be kept in its place because the future of Indo-Russian economic ties belongs to such sectors as information technology, pharmaceuticals, banking, civil aviation and biotechnology, where the signals, unfortunately, are still weak.

More Stories on : Editorial | Foreign Relations

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
FUELLING A RELATIONSHIP

Betting on growth, not reforms

It's naïve to think tainted money becomes clean when donated

There goes the anon

The knowledge edge

Ignorance of risks is high-risk

Regional growth on the wings of wax?

Recognising cheer-leaders

Full convertibility