For better India-Nepal ties

(MainsGS2: India and its neighborhood- relations.)

Context:

• Driven by challenges presented by the post-COVID-19 world, current realities as well as huge opportunities, India and Nepal were able to review the entire spectrum of the bilateral agenda covering political, economic, trade, energy, security and developmental cooperation.

Build a better future:

• Prachanda has shown political courage and probably shrewdly calculated the costs of paying heed to the spectrum of political noises warning him not to be soft and to extract solutions to irritants such as the 1950 Treaty, border differences, and India’s reluctance to receive the report of the Eminent Persons Group (EPG) set up by the two governments. 
• Instead, he seems to have listened to the few voices of reason and moderation, and to focus on opportunities to build a better future.
• Earlier, as a fiery Maoist rebel-turned political leader, he did give India a few rude shocks, crossing red lines by insisting on visiting China first, or dismissing the Army chief, considered to be a palace loyalist, to which India took strong objection (there was a clear understanding that when the Maoists joined the political mainstream, there would be no interference with the Royal Nepal Army). 

Economic integration:

• The “game changers” which can transform the economic landscape of the sub-region, such as hydropower projects to supply energy to India (and eventually to Bangladesh), infrastructure, access to Indian river transport, innovative tourism circuits, and better connectivity.
• In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, renewed high-level commitment to bilateral cooperation on multiple fronts, with improved deliveries, was necessary.
• There is a new dimension of cooperation in the power sector with the transmission passage (trilateral power transaction) from Nepal to Bangladesh through India. 
• With new power projects now under implementation or on the drawing board, and the finalisation of an agreement for long-term power trade wherein it was agreed to strive to increase the quantum of export of power from Nepal to India to 10,000 MW within a timeframe of 10 years, an era of prosperity awaits the entire sub-region.

Digital financial connectivity:

• The MoU between the National Payments Corporation of India and the Nepal Clearing House Ltd. for facilitating cross-border digital payments, and the Indian offer to create a ground station and supply 300 user terminals to offer the services of the South Asia Satellite to Nepal under grant assistance are important,
• They would promote regional cooperation in the space sector, and space technology applications in telecommunication and broadcasting, tele-medicine, tele-education, e-governance, banking and ATM services, meteorological data transmission, disaster response and the networking of academic and research institutions.

Way ahead:

• The real challenge for Nepal is to depoliticise cooperation with India, especially in water resources cooperation, improve the quality of democracy and governance at home, and check unbridled corruption, which is alarming even by South Asian standards. 
• For India, it may be necessary to address the perception in Nepal that it is no longer a foreign policy priority, and to give a sense of ownership, equality and credit for major forward movement in sectors such as hydropower to parties across the political spectrum, rather than only to the government of the day.