By Siddhant Sibbal

Indian foreign policy is not known for thinking out of the box. But in an increasingly changing world, New Delhi is looking for new partners and it has got not one but five.

On Tuesday, India will take part in the first-ever India-Nordic countries summit.&nbsp;

This is the second time ever such a summit is taking place. The last time such a summit took place was during the tenure of US president Barack Obama. And India aims to get a lot from it.&nbsp;

Nordic countries have globally-recognised strengths in clean technologies, environmental solutions, port modernisation, food processing, health, agriculture infrastructure, skill development and innovation. These are focus areas of India’s development. India’s flagship programmes like Clean Ganga, Swachh Bharat, and Smart Cities could get boosts from them.&nbsp;

India’s trade with the Nordic countries totalled around US $5.3 billion in 2016-17. The cumulative Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) from the Nordic countries to India stands at US $2.5 billion.

Part of the reason for the summit is India’s growing ties with Stockholm. This will be after three decades that an Indian PM is visiting the country. The last time an Indian PM visited Sweden was in 1988. High-level political engagements have only grown. &nbsp;

Sweden is a valued Indian partner in trade, technology and investment. Over 170 Swedish companies have invested US $1.4 billion in India since 2000. Some 70 Indian companies have invested in Sweden. The India-Sweden annual bilateral trade stands at around US $1.8 billion.&nbsp;

The Indian PM met Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven in New York on September 25, 2015. During the course of 2017, the two spoke over the telephone 4 times.&nbsp;

When the Indian PM arrives in Stockhlm, the focus will be on sectors such as business, science and technology, energy and smart cities.

India-Sweden trade ties have been good and are gaining momentum. Over 170 Swedish companies are at present in India.

Sweden has things that world can learn for it.&nbsp;

It has a feminist foreign policy and feminism forms a major pillar of its foreign policy. It has come up with its own terminology: “hen” instead of hon (her) or han (he). Uppsala in Sweden got a female archbishop in 2014. It is also the world’s first cashless society.&nbsp;

Only one per cent of transaction are done in cash, all the others use digital modes of payments.&nbsp;

The Nordic countries have been an influential voice in the world and at the UN. The first and second secretary generals of the UN were from Nordic countries. The first was Norway's Trygve Lie and the second was Sweden's Dah Hammarskjold.&nbsp;

Nor can the security angle be ignored. The Pakistani diaspora has been an important factor in the Nordic countries. They form the third-largest immigrant group in Sweden and Denmark, a group that has been an influential factor in Nordic’s politics.. Norway has the largest diaspora of Pakistanis in Scandinavia.&nbsp;

But all in all, Modi's visit is about opening a new chapter in India-Nordic ties. A chapter that looks at engaging with the Nordic countries as a single entity instead of separate units. A pan-Nordic idea, a pan-Nordic engagement.

Nordic countries have globally-recognised strengths in environmental solutions, port modernisation, food processing, health, agriculture infrastructure, and innovation. These are focus areas of India’s development. India’s flagship programmes like Clean Ganga, Swachh Bharat, and Smart Cities could get boosts from them

By Siddhant Sibbal Indian foreign policy is not known for thinking out of the box. But in an increasingly changing world, New Delhi is looking for new partners and it has got not one but five. On Tuesday, India will take part in the first-ever India-Nordic countries summit. This is the second time ever such a summit is taking place. The last time such a summit took place was during the tenure of US president Barack Obama. And India aims to get a lot from it. Nordic countries have globally-recognised strengths in clean technologies, environmental solutions, port modernisation, food processing, health, agriculture infrastructure, skill development and innovation. These are focus areas of India’s development. India’s flagship programmes like Clean Ganga, Swachh Bharat, and Smart Cities could get boosts from them. India’s trade with the Nordic countries totalled around US $5.3 billion in 2016-17. The cumulative Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) from the Nordic countries to India stands at US $2.5 billion. Part of the reason for the summit is India’s growing ties with Stockholm. This will be after three decades that an Indian PM is visiting the country. The last time an Indian PM visited Sweden was in 1988. High-level political engagements have only grown. Sweden is a valued Indian partner in trade, technology and investment. Over 170 Swedish companies have invested US $1.4 billion in India since 2000. Some 70 Indian companies have invested in Sweden. The India-Sweden annual bilateral trade stands at around US $1.8 billion. The Indian PM met Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Löfven in New York on September 25, 2015. During the course of 2017, the two spoke over the telephone 4 times. When the Indian PM arrives in Stockhlm, the focus will be on sectors such as business, science and technology, energy and smart cities. India-Sweden trade ties have been good and are gaining momentum. Over 170 Swedish companies are at present in India. Sweden has things that world can learn for it. It has a feminist foreign policy and feminism forms a major pillar of its foreign policy. It has come up with its own terminology: “hen” instead of hon (her) or han (he). Uppsala in Sweden got a female archbishop in 2014. It is also the world’s first cashless society. Only one per cent of transaction are done in cash, all the others use digital modes of payments. The Nordic countries have been an influential voice in the world and at the UN. The first and second secretary generals of the UN were from Nordic countries. The first was Norway's Trygve Lie and the second was Sweden's Dah Hammarskjold. Nor can the security angle be ignored. The Pakistani diaspora has been an important factor in the Nordic countries. They form the third-largest immigrant group in Sweden and Denmark, a group that has been an influential factor in Nordic’s politics.. Norway has the largest diaspora of Pakistanis in Scandinavia. But all in all, Modi's visit is about opening a new chapter in India-Nordic ties. A chapter that looks at engaging with the Nordic countries as a single entity instead of separate units. A pan-Nordic idea, a pan-Nordic engagement.

Modi heads to Sweden: Clean tech, skill development — Nordic countries have what India needs

India&#39;s $3 billion plan to clean the holy Ganga river is badly behind schedule with large stretches contaminated by toxic waste and sewage, forcing Prime Minister Narendra Modi to intervene, according to government officials and documents seen by Reuters.

Much of the money allocated to the project, a flagship initiative of &nbsp;Modi&#39;s Hindu nationalist government, remains unspent, say officials from the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG), a government body overseeing the project.

In one slide of a presentation to a top Modi aide in late January, NMCG officials marked almost the entire length of the river within three big circles to highlight &quot;pollution in river Ganga&quot;.

A 2018 deadline to clean the river is &quot;impossible&quot;, one NMCG official said.

&quot;If we want to meet the 2018 deadline, we should have commissioned plants to treat half the sewage already,&quot; he said, requesting anonymity because he was not authorised to speak on the record.

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Over three-quarters of the sewage generated in the towns and cities of India&#39;s crowded northern plains flows untreated into the 2,525-km (1,570-mile) Ganga, according to the presentation, which has not been made public.&nbsp;

State administrations have struggled to find land for new treatment plants, while complex tendering processes have put bidders off pitching for new clean-up projects, officials said.

The Ganga is worshipped by Hindus, who make up about 80 per cent of India&#39;s 1.3 billion people.

They call it Ganga Mata, or mother Ganga, and believe a dip in the river absolves a lifetime of sins. Hindus also cremate the bodies of their loved ones on its banks and strew the ashes in the river.

Recognising that the clean-up mission is in a shambles, Modi has decided to take personal control, a senior NMCG official said.

The clean-up drive is important as Modi wants to show tangible improvement before the next election in 2019.&nbsp;

His principal secretary, Nripendra Misra, has met NMCG officials almost monthly since November, demanding to see updates on the project&#39;s progress, the NMCG official said.

Misra did not respond to messages and calls seeking comment.

Modi, voted to power in 2014, committed $3.06 billion for the clean-up in the five years to 2020 but the January presentation showed just $205 million had been spent between April 2015 and March 2017.&nbsp;

India&#39;s water resources minister, Uma Bharti, who is responsible for overseeing the clean-up and announced the 2018 deadline, did not respond to requests for comment.

&quot;I have lost hope,&quot; said Rakesh Jaiswal, head of a small Ganga-focused environmental group in the industrial city of Kanpur since 1993. &quot;There has been nothing on the ground.&quot;

Sewage pollution

India&#39;s top environmental court in February ruled &quot;not a single drop of the Ganga has been cleaned so far&quot;, accusing the government of wasting public money.

The river stretches from the Himalayas to the Bay of Bengal and is a water source for 400 million people. But it is also the destination for waste produced by 760 industrial units described by the NMCG as &quot;grossly polluting&quot;.

In addition, the NMCG presentation showed, about 4,800 million litres of sewage from 118 towns and cities flows into the Ganga every day. The functioning capacity to treat sewage is 1,017 million litres per day (MLD).

According to official data, the Modi administration has cleared the construction of plants to treat an additional 933 MLD, and the rehabilitation of existing plants with a capacity to clean an additional 1,091 MLD.

Of these, plants treating less than 160 MLD have been completed, but it is unclear if they have started operations.

The problems are striking in Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh state: toxic pollution from tanneries operating in the industrial city flows down slum-lined open sewers into the Ganga.

Of the 456 tanneries in the state that back onto the river, most of them in Kanpur, authorities have shut down just 14, according to the government presentation.

The government has also lagged on the simpler tasks of cleaning the ghats, the riverside steps where devotees assemble to bathe, and the sites on the banks where bodies are cremated.

Of 182 ghats to be modernised, work on only 50 has started. Of 118 crematoria, just 15 are currently being renovated, with work awarded for another 31, the presentation showed.

&quot;The situation has deteriorated every year, fewer people visit now and there are no prayers at this river bank,&quot; said Ram Das, a Hindu priest at a riverside temple.

Modi takes control

Modi may find it easier to launch new clean-up projects in Uttar Pradesh, through which the longest stretch of the Ganga flows, after his party wrested power from an opposition party in a state election last month.

Modi&#39;s new chief minister in the state is a Hindu priest, Yogi Adityanath, who has long championed cleaning the Ganga. Last week he inspected a riverfront development along a Ganga tributary, calling for work to be accelerated.

&quot;You will see improvements. We have asked the states to speed up progress and money is not an issue,&quot; said C V Dharma Rao, deputy director general at the NMCG in New Delhi.

On a recent evening at a ghat in Kanpur city, workers were fixing sandstone around the steps that led down to the Ganga, one of dozens of riverfront facelifts that government has launched.

But the state of the river was unchanged &ndash; black water, full of plastic and other waste thrown by devotees, flowed slowly as mosquitoes buzzed above.

(Reuters)

&nbsp;

Much of the three billion dollars allocated to the project, a flagship initiative of the Modi government, remains unspent

India's $3 billion plan to clean the holy Ganga river is badly behind schedule with large stretches contaminated by toxic waste and sewage, forcing Prime Minister Narendra Modi to intervene, according to government officials and documents seen by Reuters. Much of the money allocated to the project, a flagship initiative of Modi's Hindu nationalist government, remains unspent, say officials from the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG), a government body overseeing the project. In one slide of a presentation to a top Modi aide in late January, NMCG officials marked almost the entire length of the river within three big circles to highlight "pollution in river Ganga". A 2018 deadline to clean the river is "impossible", one NMCG official said. "If we want to meet the 2018 deadline, we should have commissioned plants to treat half the sewage already," he said, requesting anonymity because he was not authorised to speak on the record. A 2018 deadline to clean the river is 'impossible', one National Mission to Clean Ganga official said × Over three-quarters of the sewage generated in the towns and cities of India's crowded northern plains flows untreated into the 2,525-km (1,570-mile) Ganga, according to the presentation, which has not been made public. State administrations have struggled to find land for new treatment plants, while complex tendering processes have put bidders off pitching for new clean-up projects, officials said. The Ganga is worshipped by Hindus, who make up about 80 per cent of India's 1.3 billion people. They call it Ganga Mata, or mother Ganga, and believe a dip in the river absolves a lifetime of sins. Hindus also cremate the bodies of their loved ones on its banks and strew the ashes in the river. Recognising that the clean-up mission is in a shambles, Modi has decided to take personal control, a senior NMCG official said. The clean-up drive is important as Modi wants to show tangible improvement before the next election in 2019. His principal secretary, Nripendra Misra, has met NMCG officials almost monthly since November, demanding to see updates on the project's progress, the NMCG official said. Misra did not respond to messages and calls seeking comment. Modi, voted to power in 2014, committed $3.06 billion for the clean-up in the five years to 2020 but the January presentation showed just $205 million had been spent between April 2015 and March 2017. India's water resources minister, Uma Bharti, who is responsible for overseeing the clean-up and announced the 2018 deadline, did not respond to requests for comment. "I have lost hope," said Rakesh Jaiswal, head of a small Ganga-focused environmental group in the industrial city of Kanpur since 1993. "There has been nothing on the ground." Sewage pollution India's top environmental court in February ruled "not a single drop of the Ganga has been cleaned so far", accusing the government of wasting public money. The river stretches from the Himalayas to the Bay of Bengal and is a water source for 400 million people. But it is also the destination for waste produced by 760 industrial units described by the NMCG as "grossly polluting". In addition, the NMCG presentation showed, about 4,800 million litres of sewage from 118 towns and cities flows into the Ganga every day. The functioning capacity to treat sewage is 1,017 million litres per day (MLD). According to official data, the Modi administration has cleared the construction of plants to treat an additional 933 MLD, and the rehabilitation of existing plants with a capacity to clean an additional 1,091 MLD. Of these, plants treating less than 160 MLD have been completed, but it is unclear if they have started operations. The problems are striking in Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh state: toxic pollution from tanneries operating in the industrial city flows down slum-lined open sewers into the Ganga. Of the 456 tanneries in the state that back onto the river, most of them in Kanpur, authorities have shut down just 14, according to the government presentation. The government has also lagged on the simpler tasks of cleaning the ghats, the riverside steps where devotees assemble to bathe, and the sites on the banks where bodies are cremated. Of 182 ghats to be modernised, work on only 50 has started. Of 118 crematoria, just 15 are currently being renovated, with work awarded for another 31, the presentation showed. "The situation has deteriorated every year, fewer people visit now and there are no prayers at this river bank," said Ram Das, a Hindu priest at a riverside temple. Modi takes control Modi may find it easier to launch new clean-up projects in Uttar Pradesh, through which the longest stretch of the Ganga flows, after his party wrested power from an opposition party in a state election last month. Modi's new chief minister in the state is a Hindu priest, Yogi Adityanath, who has long championed cleaning the Ganga. Last week he inspected a riverfront development along a Ganga tributary, calling for work to be accelerated. "You will see improvements. We have asked the states to speed up progress and money is not an issue," said C V Dharma Rao, deputy director general at the NMCG in New Delhi. On a recent evening at a ghat in Kanpur city, workers were fixing sandstone around the steps that led down to the Ganga, one of dozens of riverfront facelifts that government has launched. But the state of the river was unchanged – black water, full of plastic and other waste thrown by devotees, flowed slowly as mosquitoes buzzed above. (Reuters)

India's Ganga clean-up in shambles, Modi intervenes

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Modi heads to Sweden: Clean tech, skill development — Nordic countries have what India needs

India's Ganga clean-up in shambles, Modi intervenes