- Strategic Partnership Council Agreement with Saudi Arabia would further strengthen the robust bilateral relations, says Prime Minister Narendra Modi
India to become the fourth country to sign such an agreement with Saudi Arabia
The signing of the agreement on the Strategic Partnership Council by India and Saudi Arabia would strengthen the already robust relations between the two countries.
This is second visit of Prime Minister Modi to the Kingdom in three years.
The two countries have been working together within the G20 to reduce inequality and promote sustainable development.
Saying stable oil prices are crucial for the growth of the global economy, he praised the Kingdom’s role as an important and reliable source of India’s energy requirements.
Prime Minister said, “Neighbourhood First” continues to be the guiding vision for government’s foreign policy. India’s relations with Saudi Arabia are one of the most important bilateral relationships in extended neighbourhood.
On the agreement on Strategic Partnership Council which is going to be signed during this visit, will begin a new era of cooperation across sectors. Ties across various dimensions such as trade, investment, security and defence cooperation are robust and deep.
India and Saudi Arabia have a Joint Committee on Defence Cooperation that holds regular meetings and that the two nations have identified a number of areas of mutual interest and cooperation in the field of defence and security.
On the question of turmoil in several regions of West Asia, the Prime Minister called for ‘a balanced approach to resolve the conflicts, while respecting the principles of sovereignty and non-interference in each other’s internal matters.
India shares excellent bilateral relations with all the countries in the region, and a very large Indian diaspora, numbering over 8 million, resides in the region. A dialogue process that encourages the participation of all stakeholders is important to bring peace and security to this very important region.
The global economic outlook is strongly dependent on the path chartered by the large developing countries such as India.
Economic uncertainty is an offshoot of unbalanced multilateral trade systems. Within the G20, India and Saudi Arabia have been working together to reduce inequality and promote sustainable development.
India has undertaken many reforms to create a business-friendly environment, and to ensure that we remain a major driver of global growth and stability. Reforms for ease of doing business and introducing investor-friendly initiatives have contributed to improving our position in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business Index from 142 in 2014 to 63 in 2019.
A number of major flagship initiatives, like Make in India, Digital India, Skill India, Swachh Bharat, Smart Cities and Startup India, are offering a lot of opportunities to foreign investors.
On the long term energy relation with Saudi Arabia, which is the largest Oil supplier to India, India imports around 18 percent of its crude oil from the Kingdom, making it the second-largest source of crude oil for us. From a purely buyer-seller relationship, we are now moving toward a closer strategic partnership that will include Saudi investments in downstream oil and gas projects.
One of the major areas of cooperation between India and Saudi Arabia is in investments in our infrastructure projects. During his visit to India in February 2019, the crown prince had indicated an intent to invest in excess of $100 billion in India across various sectors.
“PM welcomed greater Saudi investments in infrastructure projects, including the Smart Cities program. We also welcome Saudi interest in investing in the National Investment and Infrastructure Fund.”
“Other major initiatives include the proposal to launch the RuPay card in the Kingdom, which will facilitate payments and remittances by the Indian diaspora; integration of the e-Migrate and e-Thawtheeq portals, which will facilitate the process of migration of Indian labor into the Kingdom; and an agreement on training diplomats in our respective academies.”
“India is known for its world-class capacity-building centers, and there are many initiatives to provide training to the Saudi youth in different fields. We are also discussing mutual cooperation in the field of space research.”
Nearly 2.6 million Indians have made Saudi Arabia their second home, contributing to its growth and development. Many Indians also visit the Kingdom every year for the Hajj and Umrah pilgrimage, and for business purposes.
Prime Minister Modi’s visit is expected to further strengthen and expand bilateral ties in various areas such as security and strategic cooperation, defence, energy security, renewable energy, investments, trade and commerce, small and medium enterprises, agriculture, civil aviation, infrastructure, housing, financial services, training and capacity building, culture and people-to-people engagement. Nearly a dozen government-to-government agreements related to these areas are expected to be signed, as well as several government-to-business agreements.
One of the most important outcomes of the visit is expected to be the establishment of a Strategic Partnership Council (SPC) between the two countries. India will become the fourth country with which the Kingdom has formed a strategic partnership, the others being the UK, France and China.
The SPC will have two parallel tracks: Political, security, culture and society, headed by both countries’ foreign ministers; and economy and investment, headed by India’s commerce and industry minister and the Saudi energy minister.
Energy security is one of the prime areas of India’s engagement with Saudi Arabia. New Delhi appreciates the Kingdom’s vital role as a reliable source for India’s long-term energy supplies; the Kingdom supplies 18 percent of India’s crude oil requirements and 30 percent of its liquefied petroleum gas needs. Both countries are keen to transform the buyer-seller relationship in this sector into a much broader strategic partnership based on mutual complementarity and interdependence.
- Finance Minister Releases Commemorative Coin on Paramahansa Yogananda to Mark his 125th Birth Anniversary
The Union Minister for Finance & Corporate Affairs Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman released a special commemorative coin on Paramahansa Yogananda to mark his 125th birth anniversary .
The Paramahansa Yogananda was great son of India, who became so recognised globally. His penetrating sharp eyes are full of divine force.
The importance lies in his universal message of bringing harmony among mankind and making it so acceptable globally even when communications modes were limited.
- National Digital Health Blueprint(NDHB)
Union Health Minister urges stakeholders to implement the blueprint in a time bound manner
“The National Digital Health Blueprint(NDHB) is just a beginning; it gives us a direction and a path to move towards strengthening healthcare delivery systems”: Dr Harsh Vardhan
Urging the stakeholders to work towards implementing the National Digital Health Blueprint (NDHB) in a time bound manner.
Government of India is committed to ensuring high quality healthcare, accessible to all upto the last mile. The digital health interventions are accelerating this transformation and have a huge potential for supporting Universal Health care.
Sh. J. Satyanarayana, Former Chairman, UIDAI and Chairman of the National Digital Health Blueprint (NDHB) Committee submitted the final NDHB report.
Shri. J. Satyanarayana provided a brief overview of the efforts that have gone into preparation of NDHB report and made a brief presentation on the overall framework as proposed in NDHB.
The priorities of Government of India in health care were included in the National Health Policy 2017 and this recommendation report by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has shown the implementation angle for achieving the same.
This may be considered as the biggest leap of GoI towards achieving the goal of Universal Healthcare Coverage (UHC) with impetus on Digital Healthcare component.
The need of the hour is to create an ecosystem which can integrate the existing disparate health information systems and show clear path for upcoming programmes. There is a need to ensure convergence across these IT systems to monitor and provide health services in a robust and efficient manner.
Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has initiated efforts in the direction of a comprehensive, nationwide integrated e-Health system under National Digital Health Blueprint.
NDHB will help in providing a common platform for integration of existing applications in health domain and data which has existed in silos, either in public health facility, or, in private healthcare facility, in India.
It was also updated that building on the initial document of “National Health Stack” (NHS) by Niti Aayog, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has defined clear timelines, targets and the resources required for this digital convergence of Healthcare programmes in India.
Speaking at the event, Dr. Harsh Vardhan referred to vision of Hon’ble Prime Minister of India, Sh. Narendra Modi, to reach each individual of this country with services at their doorstep under Digital India Programme and hoped that implementation of NDHB with programmes of Ministry of Health and Family Welfare would benefit every individual.