The Prime Minister said his government implemented OROP because those who lay down their lives for the country, their dignity has to be respected.
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“The main issues that were discussed, first of course, the Indian community’s welfare”.
“While global purchasing power has gone down and adversely affected our exports, despite that we have clocked this high growth rate”, he said.
Sinha said it involves establishing a framework for promoting Qatari investment in India including in asset reconstruction in public sector undertakings whose assets are in distress and getting FDI into them.
Among the various sectors that were being viewed, include railways, agro-processing, solar energy as also defence and general manufacturing, he said.
Both Prime Minister Modi and Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani at the delegation level talks highlighted that countering terrorism required a strong collective action by the global community.
On the black money issue, Jaishankar said India has already been in touch with the Swiss government under the double taxation avoidance agreement (DTAA) mandate and added that India hoped “to engage as early as possible in the automatic exchange of information with Switzerland”.
(But) India is moving ahead at a fast pace despite a lot of difficulties, he said, adding that all the credit rating agencies, World Bank and the International Monetary Fund were unanimous in recognising India as the worlds fastest growing economy. It is also one of India’s key sources of crude oil. He had also watched as Indian and Qatari officials signed seven agreements, some of them pertaining to investments in different sectors.
On the political front, according to the Secretary, both sides expressed happiness at the level of high-level visits with Modi coming to Qatar just 14 months after the Emir’s visit to India.
On the issue of graft he said, “Corruption has troubled us for long”.
Informing about the plans to create world class infrastructure in India through 100 smart cities; metro projects for 50 cities; modern waste management system for 500 cities; and a roof over every head by 2022, Modi invited Qatar to be a partner in India’s growth story.
This visit is especially important for India’s energy security as the country gets nearly two-third of its oil from the Gulf region.
Of the 630,000 expatriate Indians in Qatar, many are blue collar workers involved in the gulf country’s construction sector.
They also agreed to work together to check terror financing and illegal financial transactions.
Terrorism was a key item of discussion between the two sides during Modi’s visit with the two sides expressing “strong condemnation” of worldwide terrorism, “reiterating their firm resolve to cooperate together to root out this global menace which threatened all nations and societies”, the joint statement said.
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“The people of the country have made a chai-wala the Prime Minister who had taken many decisions in the nation’s interest and to make India a corruption-free country”.
