According to an official release, the projects were completed under the ‘Nepal-Bharat Development Cooperation’ program as High Impact Community Development projects.

The new Hospital has a general ward, private ward, operation theatre, training hall, doctors quarters, inside road and drainage systems and was built at a cost of Nepal Rupees 46.64 million Indian grant assistance.

The new 3200 MT (metric ton) capacity cold storage facility constructed at a total cost of Nepal Rupees 9.66 cr through joint funding by the Government of India (Nepal Rupees 42.54 million) and the rest by the Government of Nepal and Former’s User Group.

India has so far provided grant assistance of INR 20.99 crore to Nepal Netra Jyoti Sangh (NNJS), which manages the Fateh Bal eye hospital, for conducting 400 Diagnostic Screening & Treatment (DST) camps and surgery camp for Cataract in 52 districts and for TT in 14 Districts and for holding eye camps in schools in remote areas of Nepal.

GoI has gifted a total of five vehicles to NNJS, including a mobile eye care van for holding eye camps in schools to screen treat eye ailments in children, read the statement.

The Rapti cold storage building is equipped to preserve vegetables, fruits, and perishable agriculture produce. The fully operational new cold storage facility is envisaged to help farmers of the area to prolong the commercial value of their agri-produce and is expected to assist in raising incomes of small and medium farmers of the area.
Both projects were taken up as High Impact Community Development Projects (HICDPs) by India with the concurrence of Nepal.

Any proposal for the creation of infrastructure in the priority sectors Nepal such as education, health, drinking water, agriculture, sanitation and public utilities, connectivity such as bridges, capacity building, and vocational training, health camps in rural/remote areas, etc. and having a cost estimate of less than Nepal Rupees 5 cr are considered as HICDPs.

These are taken up under the Nepal-Bharat Development Partnership program and are implemented to support and provide immediate benefits to people of the project area, through local governments.

The statement also mentions the health sector, which is under reconstruction grant assistance (USD 50 million) from India to Nepal, a total of 147 Health Posts are being built across ten districts of Nepal affected by the 2015 earthquake. Out of 147, contracts for 25 health posts have been awarded. India has also gifted 823 ambulances to various government and Not for Profit organizations working in the health sector in Nepal.

Agriculture is also a priority sector in which both India and Nepal governments are jointly working to create the required infrastructure in Nepal. In addition to the above project, Deputy Chief of the Indian Embassy, on 10th March 2021, inaugurated the new building of the Lalitpur District Cooperative Union built at a cost of NRs 35 million under ‘Nepal-Bharat Development Cooperation’.

The Cooperative Promotion Centre is working to enhance the marketing capability by establishing direct linkage between farmers and consumers. The building is also structured to serve as an Information Centre for marketing agricultural products. Further, to support holistic development solutions, in the last two years, India has also trained 59 agriculture scientists, farmers, and agriculture policymakers in the areas of organic farming, soil testing, and fertilizer science in premier Indian agriculture centres in the National Capital Region of Delhi.

Through these projects, the Embassy of India has been complementing the efforts of the Nepal government in augmenting infrastructure in priority sectors. India has already completed 446 HICDPs in Nepal, of which 41 are in Province 5, including 6 in Dang District.

India-funded projects are under various stages of completion/implementation in the province. India has also funded Nepal Rupees 698 million for the construction of 33.5 km road from Lamahi to Koilabas, connecting the East-West highway and India-Nepal border.

India and Nepal have been enjoying old, unwavering, unmatched, and multidimensional development partnerships. Today’s inauguration of the new building of Rapti Cold Storage is a reflection of India’s continued development partnership with Nepal and complements the effort of the Government of Nepal in augmenting infrastructure in the field of agriculture. (ANI)

Source: zee5

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The move closely watched by Indo-Nepal communities, resulted in positive outcomes as evident in Oli’s statements after the successful completion of his three-day visit during April 6-8, 2018.

As part of the visit along with his wife and 53-member Nepali delegation, Oli held discussions and special meetings with the Indian dignitaries including President Ram Nath Kovind, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other key political leaders and personalities.

Significant and Fruitful

“My official visit to India was significant and fruitful. The visit has helped in clearing misunderstanding

and mistrust, and strengthening mutual trust and understanding. The bilateral relations will move forward in a new direction on the basis of equality and mutual interest,” Oli said in a statement after arriving at the Tribhuvan International Airport in Kathmandu post his India visit, indicating a new era for Indo-Nepal bilateral ties under his government.

We have agreed to expedite past agreements and understandings reached between the two countries, he added.

As part of the visit, both the sides also discussed cooperation across various sectors. Let’s have a glance at some of the key highlights of sector-wise cooperation discussed during Oli’s visit:

In the bilateral meetings, India and Nepal agreed upon few key agreements that have been under discussion for quite some time.

Stating that both the Prime Ministers were satisfied with the bilateral talks, Indian Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale informed that the two sides discussed strengthening of cooperation through agriculture, trade, defense, security, along with enhanced connectivity through railway and water ways.

Both the sides have reportedly come to a consensus on taking ahead the construction of Raxaul- Kathmandu railway line and the operation of Nepalese steamers for goods and public movement from Nepal to other countries.

Trade, Security & Inland Waterways

Towards trade cooperation, the two sides decided to develop inland waterways within the trade and transit framework for a seamless movement of cargo between the two countries.

During the discussions, Oli also raised concerns over widening Nepal’s trade deficit with India and urged Indian Government to encourage more Nepali exports.

With regard to security, he said, “We have strong relations when it comes to the aspect of security. We will work together to stop misuse of our open border.”

Green Revolution and Connectivity                                                                                                                  

As part of visit to the Uttarakhand’s GB Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, where he was awarded the honorary doctorate (Doctor of Science), Oli urged India’s support for revolutionizing agriculture in Nepal.

“Both India and Nepal are agriculture-based economies and should work together in boosting agricultural output,” Oli said in a statement.

On the occasion, Oli also welcomed the University’s collaboration in revolutionizing the Nepali agriculture sector saying, “Looking towards Indian varsities like GB Pant, one of the harbingers of the Green Revolution, who can aid us in achieving our objectives in this regard… I think if the university and Nepal collaborate in the sector, agriculture in our country will get revolutionized through a technological boost.”

He further said India’s and the University’s support are key for strengthening the two agricultural universities in Nepal that are in the initial stages of development with the need for research support.

In response, Uttarakhand Governor K.K. Paul expressed the University’s willingness to collaborate with the Government of Nepal in the fields of horticulture and herbal farming.

Lauding Oli’s visit, Chief Minister of Uttarakhand Trivendra Singh Rawat urged for improved connectivity between Nepal and Uttarakhand, especially in the border areas of Tanakpur and Dharchula.

He also pitched for direct flights between Kathmandu and Dehradun.

Call for Investment

As part of the visit, Oli held a round of discussion with the Indo-Nepal business community, wherein, he urged the Indian business community to invest in Nepal.

Citing Nepal’s investor-friendly environment, Oli pitched for investments across infrastructure, tourism, IT, agriculture and power sectors.

Stating that Nepal has fair and investor-friendly policies along with a supportive policy regime, Oli called on the businessmen for massive foreign investment.

“Indian investors have invested across the globe, so why not go to the next-door Nepal. Geographical proximity, easy access and cultural similarities are all there to make you feel good about Nepal,” noted Oli.

Potential Market & Incentives

Speaking on market opportunities Nepal has for the foreign investors or collaborators, Oli said, “Investors always look for market. Look at Nepal’s position. For us, market is not a problem, but production is a problem. It is lying between two vibrant economic powers with huge population of the world — India and China. That assures you of a promising market of 2.5 billion people. Seize the opportunity.”

Lauding European markets for their duty-free access to Nepal, he said, “We are ready to listen to you, your advises and suggestions. We want to know your views. We are committed to further improving our business climate.”

Wooing foreign investors, he noted that Nepal offers attractive incentives compared to other countries by way of simplified tax regimes and reduced tariffs.

He also informed about Nepal’s plans to establish Special Economic Zones (SEZ) in the cities sharing borders India along with offering necessary incentives to the industries, forming liberal labor laws, among others.

First International Cross-country Pipeline

As part of the visit, Oli and Modi inaugurated the long-awaited initiative of Rs 3.24 billion worth India-Nepal petroleum pipeline from Motihari to Amlekhgunj. This is the first international cross-country pipeline project in India.

Under the project, Indian Oil Corporation will supply Nepal’s major petroleum products from its Barauni Refinery and Raxaul depot in Bihar to Amlekhganj depot of Nepal Oil Corporation.

The 69-km-long pipeline project involves setting up of a 10.75-inch diameter cross-country pipeline that stretches from Motihari in Bihar to Amlekhganj in Nepal, with 32.7 km of pipeline in the Indian territory and 36.2 km in the Nepali territory.

The design-throughput capacity of this pipeline, which has pumping facilities at Motihari, stands at 2.0 million tons per annum.

This major project signed in 2015 is expected to be completed by March 2019.

The End Note

Overall, Oli’s recent visit to India has opened avenues for new form of bilateral cooperation between Nepal and India contributing to a strong South Asia. Now, it’s time for wait and watch!

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With this decision, India’s financial aid to Nepal for the new financial year steps up to Rs 650 crore, a 73 percent rise over the previous year, wherein, the allocation was Rs 375 crore.

Besides Nepal, India has also decided to give financial aid of Rs 1,813 crore to Bhutan for the coming financial year, the highest among other recipient nations receiving aid from India for FY 2018-19.

“India and Nepal have close civilizational and cultural ties, and a wide-ranging and expanding partnership across diverse sectors, which stand firmly on their own. The Indian Government is committed to advancing its development partnership to Nepal as per their priorities,” said the Indian Parliamentary Committee report on External Affairs.

The report further noted that the allocation of funds to both the countries also reflects India’s commitment to support both the countries towards expediting the development of ongoing projects, among other activities in coordination with the respective governments.

This news gains significance in the light of Nepali Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli’s likely visit to India in the first week of April 2018.

Though a formal announcement in this regard is yet to be made, Oli’s three-day maiden trip to India after assuming office is being considered key to the foreign relations between the two countries in view of the formation of Communist-led government in Nepal.

India For a Lifeline Project with Nepal

Meanwhile, in another update indicating strong Indo-Nepal diplomatic ties, India is seeking Nepal’s help for the revival of its Yamuna River to address water concerns in the Indian capital Delhi.

This move is part of Indian PM Narendra Modi’s trans-country river-linking project that is aimed at interlinking 31 rivers and divert the excess water quantity to the arid areas.

Through this project, India is looking at bringing in water from Sharda River or Mahakali River on the Indo-Nepal border to Yamuna near Delhi.

“The proposal has been cleared by a committee of secretaries and a request has been sent to the MEA (ministry of external affairs) to initiate a dialogue with Nepal,” said Indian Secretary for Water Resources UP Singh.

The committee of secretaries has actually met Nepal to negotiate with Nepal on the 540-MW capacity Pancheshwar multi-purpose hydropower project. 

The proposed Shard-Yamuna project is being considered as a lifeline project for Yamuna and is expected to benefit four Indian States: UP, Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan.

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Termed as a goodwill visit, this bilateral visit is being considered as a welcoming message for the start of India’s cordial relations with the Communist-led Government of Nepal that is yet to be formed.

As part of the visit, Swaraj called on the President of Nepal Bidya Devi Bhandari and also held discussions with a wide range of high-level Nepali politicians including CPN-UML Chairman K P Sharma Oli, CPN-MC Chairman Pushpa Kamal Dahal and Chairman of Nepal’s Federal Socialist Forum Upendra Yadav, among others.

During the discussions, Swaraj assured Indian Government’s full-fledged support to Nepal in its development and also in taking ahead bilateral ties between both the nations.

“Exchange of views on advancing our multi-dimensional relationship took place,” tweeted Raveesh Kumar, Indian External Affairs Ministry Spokesperson.

In a one-one discussion with Dahal, Swaraj said, “We will extend full cooperation to Nepal in attaining political stability and development.”

In response, Dahal reportedly said, “The talks we had were very positive and constructive. We discussed about the situation emerging after the conclusion of the elections and the preparation for formation of new government. Swaraj assured that India will extend full cooperation to Nepal in her efforts towards attaining political stability and development.”

Meanwhile, the Communist Alliance is currently busy in preparing for the formation of new Nepali Government, post which, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is also most likely to visit the Himalayan nation (according to CPN-UML).

“Modi telephoned Oli twice and both leaders invited each other for a visit to their countries,” informed CPN-UML Secretary Pradip Gyawali.

Gyawali also informed that the formation of Communist-led new Nepal Government and proposed unification of both the left parties will be completed by March 2018.

India’s Aid to Nepal

In an interesting update that boosts Indo-Nepal ties, India has almost doubled its financial allocation to Nepal for 2018-19 in its annual Union Budget unveiled on February 01, 2018.

Out of Rs 15, 011 crore budget of the Indian Ministry of External Affairs, Nepal has been allocated a sum of Rs 650 crore for FY 2018-19 more than the previous year’s value of Rs 375 crore.

“The budgetary increase indicates it is likely to cover the earthquake reconstruction fund that was in the pipeline for some time and was discussed with the Nepalese leaders,” former Indian Ambassador to Nepal Ranjit Rae said in a statement.

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This meeting gains significance in view of the fact that Nepal is seeing a long-waited political transformation in the form of recently-concluded general elections.

As the country is progressing towards its new government led by the Communist Alliance, Nepali EPG delegation, led by its Convener Bhekh Bahadur Thapa, are on a two-day trip to New Delhi for bilateral consultations with the Indian side.

Prior to this, Nepal’s EPG team also held separate discussions with the top leaders of the three major political parties including Sher Bahadur Deuba (NC), Khadga Prasad Oli (CPN) and Pushpa Kumar Dahal (CPN-MC).

In the meeting, Deuba has reportedly inquired about India’s stand on various issues pertaining to Indo-Nepal ties.

Nepal-India EPG was formed during the then Nepali PM Dr Baburam Bhattarai’s  India visit in October 2011.

Following that, during the recent visit of Indian PM Narendra Modi to Nepal  in July 2014, the two sides agreed to form the EPG of four members each with tenure of two years.

The EPG members have been mandated to come up with a joint document with recommendations based on their regular meetings in order to resolve all the contentious issues between the two countries.

According to Rajan Bhattarai, an EPG member from Nepal, both the sides have held discussions on various challenging issues between the two countries covering the 1950 Nepal-India Peace and Friendship Treaty, utilization of hydro resources, border management and issues related to trade and transit.

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The Government of India said this in its Gazette notification on October 27, 2017, wherein, it announced the removal of GST on supply of its services to Nepal and Bhutan in case of payments made in the Indian currency.

Though GST is not applicable on export of goods and services, it was exempted only for the payments that involve convertible foreign currencies.

With this, the cost of service exports involving cargo handling, transportation and container freight station became costlier. This turned into a burden for Nepalis, who usually transact with the Indian service providers in the Indian currency.

Following this, the Government of Nepal and the country’s private sector sought GST exemption on Indian service exports to Nepal.

In response, in the last week of September 2017, the Indian Government announced GST removal on Indian services involving transit operations such as shipment, transportation, insurance, container freight station and cargo handling charges, among others for Nepal and Bhutan.

Transit and cargo handling are among the major service imports Nepali traders get from India.

Decision Positive for Nepalis

According to Hari Bhakta Sharma, President of the Confederation of Nepalese Industries (CNI), the removal of GST would save Rs 10 billion per year on service imports for Nepali traders.

Rabi Shanker Sainju, Joint Secretary at the Ministry of Commerce Nepal, opines that the decision makes it easier for Nepali and Bhutanese traders to transact in Indian currency, which is widely circulated in both the countries.

The recent amendments to GST rules on the recommendation of GST Council of India will boost service exports from India to Nepal, Sainju added.

It’s noteworthy that the Nepal Rastra Bank also encourages Nepalis to make payments in Indian currency.

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In a first of its kind exercise, Nepal will be coordinating with India in the latter’s efforts towards estimate the tiger count.

Officials from both the countries have formed a resolution in this regard in a recently-held meeting to simultaneously estimate the number of tigers.

“The resolution was passed and now we will work on the module which will be followed along the border,” says Nishant Verma, DIG of National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), who was one of the key attendees of the meeting.

Both the sides also discussed trans-boundary cooperation to fight against wildlife crime through regular meetings on the issue, joint patrolling and exchange of information, among other measures.

Core Idea of the Planned Survey

This initiative by India and Nepal gains significance in view of the recent revelation by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Initiative, wherein, it said that ‘there were about 11 tigers that reached Nepal boosting the population of the specie which was under severe poaching threat’.

The idea behind this initiative is to synchronize the monitoring process of big cats across the Indo-Nepal border areas.

In India, monitoring of tiger reserves is done annually through the Phase IV analysis, followed by the estimation exercise across states once in every four years.

Whereas, Nepal’s monitoring activity has been based on protocols of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA), the apex body that checks tiger conservation in India.

Nepal has around 200 tigers compared to India, which reported 2,226 tigers in its last estimation in 2014-15.

Initiative to Help India and Nepal

“We share common boundary and this comprehensive estimation will help both countries in estimating tiger numbers especially on border areas,” says Bivash Pandav, Scientist at Wildlife Institute of India.

The joint exercise will extend from Dudhwa National Park of Uttar Pradesh till the Kishanpur Wildlife Sanctuary and Katerniaghat Wildlife Sanctuary of Nepal. Valmiki Tiger Reserve of Bihar, Pilibhit Tiger Reserve of UP, Chitwan National Park and Shukhlaphanta of Nepal would be covered in the process.

Whereas in Uttarakhand, the boundary is shared across Pithoragarh and Campawat forest divisions.

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