The visit of Nepal’s Prime Minister to India should be used as an opportunity to recast power and trade links. Examine (200 Words)
Refer - The Hindu
Enrich the answer from other sources, if the question demands.
IAS Parliament 3 years
KEY POINTS
· The visit of Nepal’s Prime Minister to India is the first bilateral visit abroad a who leads an election government.
· Nepal’s relations with India, that plummeted to a historic low after the Indian blockade in September 2015, have yet to recover as Nepalis do not see relations with India improving any time soon.
· India’s refusal to accept demonetised bills with the Nepal Rastra Bank worth just INRRs 7 crore and the unknown fate of the report submitted by the Eminent Persons Group (EPG) .
· Geopolitics is a complicated challenge for Nepal, whose geography requires it to make best use of its position between China and India.
· With relations between India and the United States further complicated by the China factor and India abstaining on the Russia vote in the United Nations even as Nepal voted in favour of it, the problems have continued to mount.
· For India, buying power from Nepal would mean managing peak demand and also saving the billions of dollars of investments which would have to be invested in building new power plants, many of which would cause pollution.
· Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (BIPPA) signed between India and Nepal needs more attention from the Nepali side.
· A commitmenta on implementing this would attract more foreign investments from Indian investors.
