The many ways of helping Sri Lanka

GS Paper 2

Syllabus: Bilateral, regional and global grouping involving India, India and its neighbourhood etc

 

Source: The Hindu

Directions: This is an editorial piece. You can go through it once. The recent crisis in Sri Lanka and India’s role in neighbouring countries is important for this year’s mains.

 

Context: India has assisted with nearly $4 billion to Sri Lanka.

 

How can India help?

• • • Provide Liberal loans
    • Sharing technical expertise or knowledge
    • Helping the country upgrade skills in different areas of economic activity.

 

Engagement areas:

• • • Agriculture and allied activities: India can help Sri Lanka develop its dairy sector.
      • Sri Lanka imports a considerable quantity of milk powder from India and annually imports dairy products worth $315 million.
    • Poultry sector: India can share its knowledge on the productivity of wheat which is largely used as the primary ingredient in domestic poultry feed.
    • Energy projects:
      • Provisional approvals for the Adani Group’s wind power projects of over $500 million in the Northern Province.
    • MSME sector: Programmes including the ‘Digital MSME’ and ‘RAMP’ (Raising and Accelerating MSME Performance) can provide leads to the MSME sector.
    • School education: India can expand its scheme of establishing smart classrooms and modern computer labs to cover all those institutions teaching children of hill country Tamils, the most underprivileged section in Sri Lankan society.
    • Higher education: Indian universities can consider setting up satellite campuses in Sri Lanka.
    • Training employees of the public sector: A collaborative project can be conceived for training second and third rung employees of the public sector.
    • Culture front: India can arrange for greater numbers of Buddhist monks to visit religious places.

 

Way forward:

• • • Engagement: There is enormous scope for India to engage in a constructive way with its southern neighbour, which is known for performing better than most other economies in Asia.
    • Equitable distribution of developmental programmes: India can ensure that the proposed development programme is equitably distributed in coverage.
      • The Northern and Eastern Provinces, where the Tamil and Muslim ethnic minorities live, should be given special attention as their contribution to Sri Lanka’s GDP is hardly 10%.
    • Stability: Politically and economically stable Sri Lanka will be in India’s interest too.

 

Insta Links:

India-Sri Lanka Relations

 

Mains Link:

The long-sustained image of India as a leader of the oppressed and marginalized Nations has disappeared on account of its newfound role in the emerging global order” Elaborate. (UPSC 2019)

 

Prelims Link:

• • • Hambantota port
    • Mapping important areas of Sri Lanka
    • Palk Bay