INDIA CELEBRATES
India’s bilateral relations with Botswana remain strong Asian country observes 75th Republic Day
India’s High Commissioner to Botswana Bharath Kumar Kuthati will this Friday 26th January 2024, join the Indian Diaspora to observe the 75th Republic Day of the world’s most populous nation, at Travel Lodge in Gaborone.
The auspicious day presents India an opportunity to showcase her diverse culture, such as the recently UNESCO listed Garba of Gujarat, as well as celebrate some of her achievements and milestones in human progress.
On 23 August 2023, India became the first nation to successfully land a spacecraft (Chandrayaan 3) in the lunar south pole region, and the fourth country after the Soviet Union, the United States and China, to soft land on the moon. Prime Minister Narendra Modi celebrated this feat with his fellow BRICS compatriots during a summit in Johannesburg at the time.
There are approximately 12, 000 Indian nationals and people of Indian Origin (PIOs) who contribute significantly to Botswana’s economy and form a prosperous segment of the society.
They are engaged in service and retail sector, such as teaching, accounting, insurance and finance, medicine and pharmaceuticals. Indian Origin Diaspora also owns several grocery stores, supermarket chains and has presence in hospitality, construction and hospital industry.
Out of 45 diamond cutting and polishing businesses, majority of them have been established by the Indian diamond companies as part of their multinational operations. These companies have generated employment opportunities and imparted training skills in diamond cutting and polishing to local Batswana.
India established diplomatic relations with Botswana immediately after the latter’s independence in 1966 and opened resident diplomatic mission in Gaborone in 1987. Botswana established its Mission in New Delhi in 2006.
A spokesperson of the India High Commission in Botswana, Rajeev Seth told The Midweek Sun Tuesday ahead of the Republic Day that bilateral relations with Botswana have been “close and friendly”, with a new thrust in mutual trust over the last few years through high level visits to each other’s countries.
Some of the bilateral mechanisms between the two countries include the Foreign Office Consultations, Joint Ministerial Committee Meeting (JMC) and MOUs/agreements including on visa, culture, trade, double taxation, agriculture, education, science and technology. In fact, the fourth Foreign Office Consultations were held in Gaborone on 14th December 2023.
India’s assistance and cooperation with Botswana in institutional capacity building has also been a strong pillar of the bilateral relations with close to 1200 Botswana candidates having been awarded scholarships or trained under ITEC, IAFS or ICCR in the last eight years.
In trade and commerce, the major exports to India are rough diamonds and major imports from India to Botswana are also dominated by diamonds, with small volumes or value in manufactured goods, machinery, generic drugs and others.
Seth identifies opportunities for Indian businesses in the field of pharmaceuticals, medical devices, tires, agriculture equipment, education, infrastructure projects, entertainment industry, digital world, banking sector and medical tourism.
A significant economic development in the relations between India and Botswana happened on the 25 July 2023 when Botswana Power Corporation (BPC) and India’s Jindal Steel and Power Ltd. signed an initial power purchase agreement for 30 years from the 300 MW greenfield coal-fired power plant project which is expected to be completed by 2028 by Jindal.
The agreement was made under the contract secured in November 2022 for Jindal to design, build, finance and maintain the plant. Botswana’s cabinet has approved to add another 300 MW to this greenfield project. On the 6th October, 2023, the ground breaking ceremony of the power plant took place. Jindal Steel and Power Ltd. is investing US Dollars 2 billion on this project.