{"id":193291,"date":"2022-06-30T20:32:34","date_gmt":"2022-06-30T15:02:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=193291"},"modified":"2022-06-30T20:33:38","modified_gmt":"2022-06-30T15:03:38","slug":"the-indian-challenge-in-afghanistan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/the-indian-challenge-in-afghanistan\/","title":{"rendered":"The Indian challenge in Afghanistan"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

News<\/strong>: Recently, a massive earthquake hit Afghanistan. Consequently, the Indian Air Force was moved in with tonnes of relief material, making India a \u2018first responder\u2019.<\/p>\n

About the quake<\/strong><\/h5>\n

The massive earthquake was centered around the Afghanistan- Pakistan border<\/strong>. It was measured 5.9 on the Richter Scale.<\/p>\n

Relief Measures<\/strong><\/h5>\n

(A) Overall<\/strong><\/p>\n

Due to proximity, Pakistan<\/strong> was able to send relief aid quickly, declaring that the aid was from \u201cthe people of Pakistan\u201d. In addition, Iran also sent relief material by air.<\/p>\n

Taiwan<\/strong> has offered $1 million despite not being a member of the world body due to Beijing\u2019s objections.<\/p>\n

Japan, South Korea<\/strong>, and the UAE<\/strong> have also responded to the UN\u2019s appeal for aid to Afghanistan.<\/p>\n

The United States Agency for International Development<\/strong> also announced aid without making any specific commitment.<\/p>\n

The UN Security Council<\/strong> allowed sanctions exemption<\/strong> for the delivery of humanitarian aid.<\/p>\n

(B) Indian Specific Relief Measures <\/strong><\/p>\n

India <\/strong>announced plans to send a technical team to \u201cclosely monitor and coordinate the efforts of various stakeholders\u201d for the effective delivery of humanitarian assistance<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

However, India probably asked for aid to flow through the Iranian route, instead of Pakistan. It was because India’s aid in Afghanistan was being diverted to Pakistan.<\/p>\n

Afghanistan\u2019s Response to Indian Relief Measures<\/strong><\/h5>\n

Afghan officials have welcomed not only aid, but called for the restarting of small projects across the country.<\/p>\n

What are the challenges in providing relief aid?<\/strong><\/h5>\n

There are difficulties involved given the broken Afghan banking<\/strong> and financial systems<\/strong> and lack of infrastructure<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The U.S. instructions<\/strong> mandate that all aid should be in cash,<\/strong>\u00a0since no banks will do business or accept letters of credit to the Afghan central bank (DAB).<\/strong> Although Cash transfers to the DAB are possible, its own reach to the furthest parts of the country is doubtful.<\/p>\n

The UN organizations also provide cash, and aid agencies have long had to use reliable local hawala networks<\/strong> for transfers. India will not agree to large-scale Indian aid <\/strong>being spent in this manner.<\/p>\n

What are the challenges to the reconstruction of Afghanistan?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It will be difficult to transport the requirements for reconstruction, through territory other than Pakistan.<\/p>\n

Afghanistan\u2019s domestic industries<\/strong> have been side-lined by Pakistan<\/strong>, Turkish or Chinese ones<\/strong>. For example, Pakistan\u2019s cement companies such as Lucky Cement.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Most of the UN activity<\/strong> for Afghanistan is done through Pakistan. For example, that major UN agencies and the International Organisation for Migration are present in Pakistan.<\/p>\n

Security issues:\u00a0<\/strong>There is a presence of the Islamic State Khorasan (IS-K)<\/strong> in many parts of Afghanistan. In recent times, it has become strongly anti-India, along with al-Qaeda. For example, it carried out a recent attack on a gurdwara<\/strong> in Kabul.<\/p>\n

Difficulties in the implementation of Indian projects are more likely to arise from intra-Afghan tensions rather than any hostility to India.<\/p>\n

What should be done?<\/strong><\/p>\n

India should encourage Afghan cement plants and related industries, and ensure optimal use of coal, which is now being exported to Pakistan at cheap prices.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, India has around 400 projects in all the 34 provinces of Afghanistan. Thus, India can ask for the protection from Taliban for them.<\/p>\n

It is also important to remember that the Taliban have never actively been anti-India.<\/p>\n

Source<\/strong>: The post is based on an article \u201cThe Indian challenge in Afghanistan\u201d published in the \u201cThe Hindu\u201d on 30th<\/sup> June 2022.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

News: Recently, a massive earthquake hit Afghanistan. Consequently, the Indian Air Force was moved in with tonnes of relief material, making India a \u2018first responder\u2019. About the quake The massive earthquake was centered around the Afghanistan- Pakistan border. It was measured 5.9 on the Richter Scale. Relief Measures (A) Overall Due to proximity, Pakistan was… Continue reading The Indian challenge in Afghanistan<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10308,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[212,10498],"class_list":["post-193291","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-gs-paper-2","tag-the-hindu","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193291","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10308"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=193291"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/193291\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=193291"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=193291"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=193291"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}