Engaging ASEAN; Daring Dragon; Animal Spirit
PM Narendra Modi; Defence Minister Rajnath Singh; BSE in Mumbai
Opinion Watch
Engaging ASEAN
India has over three decades of engaging the ASEAN now as part of the Look East Policy, and The Economic Times in its Editorial has heaped praise for the Jakarta Summit where Prime Minister Narendra Modi affirmed Indian support to the rules-based order. The business daily underlined that the global challenges need solutions from those who are in tents and outside, and thus the India-ASEAN Summit held significance in ensuring the centrality of the 10 nation-block in the Indo-Pacific, as well as building on a safety net against “extreme gravity of a single country or block (China)”.
India and ASEAN are working out an FTA, while Modi presented a 12-point action plan, which also included offering a multi-model corridor to connect the South East Asian nations with Europe via India and West Asia. Engagement indeed is substantive, but the economic import would need intense focus to make India and ASEAN ties more robust.
Daring Dragon
The Tribune has quoted the officials of the Border Road Organisation to state that India will catch up with China on infrastructure alongside the line of actual control in three to four year, as Union Minister Rajnath Singh inaugurates 90 projects at a cost of Rs 2941 crores consisting of roads, bridges, tunnels and airfields in 10 states and UTs. The Chandigarh-based daily also stated that last year 103 projects in the region were inaugurated at a cost of Rs 2897 crores. Also, it underlined that Singh would lay foundation for Nyoma airfield in eastern Ladakh, which is strategically significant for India.
The Modi government has indeed acted with speed in the aftermath of the violent Galwan clash between the Indian and the Chinese soldiers to build infrastructure in states and UTs bordering China. This may need godspeed to neutralize excessive infrastructure buildup of China in the forward areas, all across the LAC.
Animal Spirit
Festive season now sets in, and The Asian Age in its Editorial has examined the prospects of growth amid racing investments, $16.5 billion pumped by FIIs in the stock market while industries clocked 26 per cent jump in profits in the first quarter of the current fiscal. The New Delhi-based daily argued that the Indian equities grew valuations by $775 billion (one-third of the size of the Indian economy) in just five years.
The Indian equities are on a phenomenal run, sizing up the future opportunities for India in the wake of changing global order. Yet, it will be pertinent to see if the growth of the economy has equity for all, to bring several millions out of the poverty trap.
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