India/Burma
What copters?
Following increasingly strident attacks by human-rights activists over the past couple of months, the New Delhi government recently denied – as "completely baseless" – reports that India was planning on selling a number of helicopters to the Burmese junta. Such a deal would have contravened an arms embargo sponsored by the European Union that has been in place since 1988, and would have taken place in an environment of heightened international concern with the situation in Burma.
The rebuttal was prompted by a report published by the international watchdog Amnesty International, backed by several European rights groups, alleging that New Delhi was preparing to sell a number of its indigenously developed Advanced Light Helicopters to Rangoon. Although the helicopters were manufactured in India, the Amnesty report said that the machines would not function without crucial components built in the EU, and urged European officials to refuse sale of any related part to India should the deal go through. Rights groups have long warned that any sale of military hardware to Rangoon only helps the junta in its longstanding war against the country's minority communities.
Bangladesh/India
Come to Shillong!
Despite New Delhi's current border-fencing programme along the Indo-Bangladeshi frontier – coupled with the on-again-off-again relationship between the Indian Northeast and the worries over 'Bangladeshi migrants' – an agreement was recently struck to work towards stepping up tourism between Bangladesh and three states in the Northeast. The deal, between the Tour Operators Association of Bangladesh and the state governments of Assam, Tripura and Meghalaya, will now push the four bodies to urge their respective central governments to do two things: to set up a consular service in Shillong, and to start the long-discussed bus service between that city and Dhaka. "We need to revive our shared traditions and culture," said Meghalaya Tourism Minister Charles Pyngrope at the signing, "which is one way to make our region more peaceful."
India/Bangladesh
Taka from Dhaka
The Indian government recently indicated that it was considering changing its current policy in order to allow direct foreign investment by Bangladeshi investors – albeit on a selective basis and following 'security' checks. New Delhi currently prohibits any direct investment from both Pakistan and Bangladesh, but Minister of State for Commerce Jairam Ramesh has now made it clear that Indian policymakers were considering loosening the reigns on the latter.