DFAT’s review of India strategy is timely and wellfounded

India Australia Comprehensive Partnership has gained momentum and intensity since its upgradation during the inaugural virtual summit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Scott Morrison on 4 June, 2020. The key objective was to recalibrate bilateral engagements in light of the rapidly altering regional geopolitics, international business and trade disruptions, and the opportunities that Covid-19 has presented for both sides. In this regard, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has launched a timely review of the India Economic Strategy to 2035 authored by Peter Varghese, largely in the pre- Covid context. Although, much of the recommendations of the report still hold ground, there is definitely a need to devise new strategies and action-plan as a way-forward.

In the altered global context, it is imperative that Australia and India put together the following time-bound action plan to maximise returns at the bilateral level:

1. In the first year dialogues must be undertaken at the ministerial level in different sectors;

2. In a maximum six months, existing Working Groups need to be galvanised and new ones formed to take action upon the recommendations of the two reports. Sub-working group must be formed and tasked to dish-out the details of the consultations and recommendations;

3. All ministerial departments must act in unison and diligently until business relationship gains a momentum of its own;

4. Yearly review of these dialogues and consultations must be undertaken to identify progress, bottlenecks and future actionplan and ideally be shared with the apex leadership on both sides to enable an informed and productive discussion in summit meetings;

5. Sector specific dialogues and consultation must be held under the Free Trade Agreement talks to address the issues of Rules of Origin and trade barriers urgently;

6. Trade talks will be complex and challenging, and businesses on both sides need to become thick-skinned while structural impediments and bureaucratic delays are ironed out. There is also a need to spread risk and diversification in Australia’s business and trade ties by engaging with India;

7. Focusing on impact sectors — sports and education -- will help create a conducive and positive atmosphere on both sides and shape positive public opinion. Herein, bringing back 18,000 stranded Indian students to Australia, addressing the gaps and recommendations in India’s New Education Policy 2020, and promoting sporting exchanges and collaboration to strengthen India’s $400 million sports ecosystem must be considered seriously; and

8. More efforts are required to bolster India literacy amongst business and trade organisations in Australia, and vice versa.

Domestically, there are a range of strategies which Australia may incorporate in its policy-making to bolster India strategy:

1. There is a need to open up, if not change, the mindset of the stakeholders in Australia for doing business with India;

2. Sharing success stories and India’s changed economic scenario with business is necessary to convince them why it is no more business as usual in India. Also, India’s business credentials have become stronger which needs to be shared with Australian stakeholders;

3. Collaborations and consultations must move beyond the track-I level, with non-government stakeholders inter alia, academic institutions, small businesses, community associations and policy institutes to gather wider and diverse inputs and suggestions and incorporate them in profiling India’s improved credentials on the one hand, and enriching Australia’s India strategy on the other; and

4. As FTA negotiations gather steam, there is a strong case for organising a high-level business conclave, something like the Raisina Dialogue, involving business leaders, entrepreneurs, policymakers, legislators and diplomats to augment Australia’s awareness about India.

While Covid-19 has battered the world economies, claimed millions of human lives and undermined international relations among major powers causing anxieties amongst their regional partners in the Indo- Pacific, it has also opened up a whole new vista of opportunities as well. Australia and India must make a virtue out of a necessity and not let this opportunity slip. That they have acted diligently and purposefully to sit on the drawing board to strategise how best to smother the impact of Covid-19 and their strained ties with China, is heartening. It is time to turn adversities into opportunities.