Oman has a pivotal role to play in India seeking deeper engagement and collaboration in West Asia.
The Sultan of Oman, Sultan Haitham bin Tarik, is visiting India from December 16 on a state visit.
Oman is the closest neighbours to India in the Arabian Gulf region.
With key Omani ports abutting the coastline along the Arabian Sea as well as the Gulf of Oman leading into the Persian Gulf and towards the Gulf of Aden, Oman’s location is of utmost strategic importance to India. Along with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Oman completes the trio of key strategic partners of India in the Gulf region.
Oman is a crucial pillar of India’s West Asia policy, with their multi-faceted engagement increasingly taking on a more strategic shape in recent decades.
Oman was one of the few countries to have been invited by India to its G-20 presidency as a guest nation earlier this year.
India and Oman have had a longstanding partnership in ensuring maritime security in the Indian Ocean region. Oman is the first Gulf country to hold joint exercises with all three branches of the Indian defense forces, and it has allowed Indian military aircraft to overfly or transit its airspace. Additionally, an Indian naval ship has been stationed in the Gulf of Oman since 2012-13 for anti-piracy operations.
India was the second largest market for Oman’s crude oil exports for the year 2022 after China.
India and Oman are looking forward to increased engagement in strategic areas such as space cooperation.
The possibility of an agreement on joint exploration of rare earth metals.
The proposed India-Middle-East-Europe Connectivity Corridor (IMEEC) infrastructure project to link India to Europe across West Asia could also see Oman playing an important role.
There is a proposal from the South Asia Gas Enterprise (SAGE), a private consortium based in India, to lay a 1,400 km long deep-sea pipeline from Oman to India for the transfer of gas.
With IMEEC too looking at similar undersea connectivity, there could be convergence on it with Oman in the future.
Conclusion: Oman's membership in significant regional groups, including the GCC, OIC, and Arab League, makes it crucial for India. Oman's proficiency in managing rival ideologies and power dynamics in the region makes it India's gateway to West Asia. Both countries are advocates of peace and enjoy global goodwill across ideologies.
On the morning of December 13, two men (Manoranjan & and Sagar Sharma) entered Parliament and sprayed gas from canisters when the Lok Sabha was in session. Two others stood outside, raising slogans and spraying gas from similar canisters. Sobhana K. Nair reports on the four people involved and their motivations for causing the worst security breach in recent times.
Unusually heavy rainfall in India has led to more frequent floods, considered climate change-induced disasters. The question is whether climate change is being used as an excuse for the mistakes made in dealing with these floods.
Chennai suffered the serious impacts of floods in 2005, 2015 and, again, in 2023. Although each one of these floods is unique in their own way, the impact has been devastating, increasing year after year.
A few pertinent questions arise in this context: To what extent are the floods that occur due to historical human errors or blunders? To what extent has conventional wisdom followed by the State helped mitigate floods and droughts? What are the lessons learnt from the past extreme events? What should be done to make the city of Chennai flood resilient? And, how does one convert disaster into opportunity so that the city of Chennai also gets abundant water supply?
Chennai faces the challenge of coastal floods and climate change, and it is crucial to understand its hydrology and ecosystem and make scientific interventions towards flood mitigation, drought handling, and building climate-resilient strategies for Chennai and the Metropolitan Area.
Chennai city and the adjoining districts are richly endowed with wonderful watersheds (A watershed is an area of land that drains or “sheds” water into a specific waterbody).Many tanks in Chennai are neglected, silted up, and heavily damaged by high run-off due to low water storage. Attachment areas, flood plains, feeder and supply channels, and water spread areas are also silted and encroached. To reduce run-off and increase water storage, these water bodies need to be restored and possibly doubled in capacity.
Chennai is uniquely placed geographically, with three rivers (Kosasthalaiyar, Adyar, and Palar) and the Buckingham canal that cuts across these river running through the city. However, the rivers are in bad shape due to heavy encroachments and silt deposits, resulting in a loss of gravity and velocity.
At the same time, it is extremely critical to acknowledge the fact that the degree of urban expansion in the Chennai city has been one of the fastest in the country. And, it is important to recognise that the urban expansion process is irreversible and can be disastrous if not regulated.
