GS Paper III –International Relations.
India, Rwanda sign aviation, visa deals
What’s Happening-
India and Rwanda have concluded a bilateral air services agreement enabling direct flights between the two countries.
Key Points discussed were:
- Three memorandums of understanding (MoUs) concluded during Vice-President Hamid Ansari’s visit to the African nation.
- Rwandan Airways will begin direct flights between Kigali and Mumbai in April.
- Setting up of an entrepreneurial development centre in Rwanda
- Exemption of visa for entry of diplomatic and official passports.
- The agreements were signed in the presence of a large business delegation from India at the newly constituted India-Rwanda Business Forum organised by the FICCI and the Rwandan government.
Encourage tourism:
- The Rwandan government wants to encourage tourism from Indian side.
- With the air services agreement, that should happen.
- They also want Bollywood films to be shot here, because they have noticed how tourism to New Zealand picked up after Bollywood started shooting films there.
- Mr. Ansari enquired about:
- President Paul Kagame’s governance model that had helped Rwanda become one of the cleanest, most well-run states in the region.
- How Rawandan Government are overcoming ethnic majoritiarianism by concentrating on a shared linguistic and cultural heritage.
Background-
Rwanda is a in and and one of the smallest countries on the African mainland.
Located a few degrees south of the .
India is represented in Rwanda through its Honorary Consulate in .
Rwanda has been operating its in since 1998 and appointed its first resident High Commissioner in 2001.
Both countries are members of the .
Two countries signed agreements to mutually exempt visa requirements for diplomatic and official passport holders.
Trade Relations:
The main items of Indian exports to Rwanda are pharmaceuticals, vehicles, plastics and machinery.
Bilateral trade between the two countries stood at 210 million dollars and have seen a growth of over 350% in the time period between 2005 and 2009.
GS Paper II – Structure, organization and functioning of the Executive and the Judiciary
The Maintain law, order on SYL canal issue: SC
What’s Happening-
- Even as Punjab denied any liability on its part to share water with Haryana, the Supreme Court stood firm by its decision to construct the Sutlej-Yamuna Link Canal and urged the neighbouring States to maintain law and order at any cost.
Key Points discussed were:
Status quo:
- The Supreme Court’s call for status quo in the inter-State water dispute came amidst Punjab’s affidavit that the Punjab Termination of Water Agreement Act of 2004 was still in force.
Background: What is the Sutlej Yamuna Link (SYL) Canal, and the controversy over it?
- The creation of Haryana from the old (undivided) Punjab in 1966 threw up the problem of giving Haryana its share of river waters.
- Punjab was opposed to sharing waters of the Ravi and Beas with Haryana, citing riparian principles, and arguing that it had no water to spare.
- At an inter-state meeting convened by the central government in 1955, the total calculated flow (read water) of the Ravi and Beas — 15.85 million acre feet (MAF) — had been divided among Rajasthan (8 MAF), undivided Punjab (7.20 MAF) and Jammu and Kashmir (0.65 MAF).
- In March 1976, a decade after the Punjab Reorganisation Act was implemented, and even as Punjab continued to protest, the Centre issued a notification allocating to Haryana 3.5 MAF out of undivided Punjab’s 7.2 MAF.
- To enable Haryana to use its share of the waters of the Sutlej and its tributary Beas, a canal linking the Sutlej with the Yamuna, cutting across the state, was planned.
- On April 8, 1982, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi ceremonially dug the ground at Kapoori village in Patiala district for the construction of the 214-km Sutlej-Yamuna Link (or SYL) canal, 122 km of which was to be in Punjab, and 92 km in Haryana.
How did the controversy develop further in 2016?
- In March 2016, Supreme Court started hearings into a presidential reference to decide on the legality of the Punjab Termination of Agreements Act, 2004.
- The presidential reference was made by the Centre days after the Punjab Assembly passed the Act. As the hearings resumed, the Solicitor General, appearing on behalf of the Centre, took a pro-Haryana stance, saying the Centre stood by the SC’s orders asking Punjab to complete the work on SYL in its territory.
- The development has triggered a political storm in Punjab.