India's Foreign Aid Policy Amid Covid Surge , Covid - 19 :India beings accepting Foreign Aid for the first time in 16 years

India's Foreign Aid Policy

Context

In what marks a major shift in policy in 16 years, India has now started accepting gifts, donations and aid from foreign nations as the country reels under a massive shortage of oxygen, drugs and related equipment amid a surge in Covid cases.

What was our policy?

When we accepted the aid

• Uttarkashi earthquake (1991)
• Latur earthquake (1993)
• Gujarat earthquake (2001)
• Bengal cyclone (2002)
• Bihar floods (July 2004)

When we declined the aid

• Former Finance Minister during NDA rule Jaswant Singh announced during his budget speech that said India had reached a stage when it would no longer rely on aid that was tied to any specific effort. “While being grateful to all our development partners of the past, I wish to announce that the Government of India would now prefer to provide relief to certain bilateral partners, with smaller assistance packages”
• December 2004 tsunami PM Manmohan Singh said “We feel that we can cope up with the situation on our own and we will take their help if needed.” It was a “watershed moment” for India’s disaster aid policy.
• Since then, India has refused foreign aid after
  • Kashmir earthquake in 2005
  • Uttarakhand floods in 2013
  • Kashmir floods in 2014
  • Kerala floods 2018
• As recently as August 2018, in the aftermath of the Kerala floods, when the state government said the UAE had offered Rs 700 crore as flood relief, the Centre had ruled out any international aid and had made it clear that it would meet the state’s requirements for relief and rehabilitation through “domestic efforts”. This position had led to a major row between the Centre and the state government.

Is accepting foreign aid a change of policy?

• The covid-19 pandemic has triggered an unprecedented situation and India is not looking at medical supplies and assistance by its partners and friends in terms of any policy framework.
• According to GoI:

– India had supplied essential pharmaceutical products including hydroxychloroquine, paracetamol and even Remdesivir to geographies across the globe in view of the pandemic and the other countries have now come forward to help India.

– "We have given assistance; we are getting assistance. It shows an interdependent world. It shows a world that is working with each other”.

Countries offering help

• Around 40 nations across the world including all major powers like the US, Russia, Japan, France, Germany and the UK have announced medical supplies and assistance to help India deal with the second wave of the coronavirus.

What have we received so far?

• Oxygen equipment – Cylinders, concentrators etc
• Medicines – Favipiravir, remdesivir etc
• Vaccines – US, Russia – Sputnik V etc
• Even Bhutan has offered two oxygen plants for use in NER..!!
• Romania has sent 80 oxygen concentrators..!!
• Commercial supplies are coming in from multiple countries.
• Even China & Pakistan have offered to help..!!How are we acceptin

India’s acceptance of help

• India has said that it has “no conceptual problem” in procuring oxygen-related equipment and life-saving medicines from China..!!
• New Delhi has still not made up its mind on whether to accept aid from Pakistan — though it is unlikely to accept it.

All the aid and assistance is being routed through the India Red Cross society.

All aid coming to the Government of India from private and state bodies abroad are being received by the Indian Red Cross. The consignments are then handed over to the MEA and then the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Home Affairs deal with domestic distribution.c