sharpeye

When the world is fighting COVID-19, the current stand-off at the Galwan River Valley in Ladakh has struck hard the India-China relations once again. China is giving India a tough and complex challenge politically, strategically, economically and environmentally. China’s military and economic clout provides it better prospects in international community where India has to struggle hard to make its presence felt. We have no military strategy to find amicable solutions towards China’s provocative and coercive military tactics. While safeguarding its territorial and strategic interests, India is yet to hone up its diplomatic skills while China advance its strategic objectives through coercion, military might trying to eliminate the perceived threats to its interests. The current stand-off at the Galwan River Valley in Ladakh, in the disputed Kashmir region, for instance believed to have started on 5 May 2020 is prompted by a road that branches off from the all-important 255 km

Truly said, CSOs are often acknowledged as the ‘Jagrit Nagrik (awakened citizen)’, depicting the eyes and ears of people is on the verge of exclusion from the mainstream efforts. Expectations from CSOs are always on the higher end since they are the informal channel of communication amongst various stakeholders. If our Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi highlights that “India’s fight against corona is truly people-driven”, why should CSOs be at the edge? In the light of Atmanirbharta, it is necessary to ‘strengthen’ not ‘shrink’ their structure and advisory role because CSOs are building blocks of a strong democratic society. There has been plethora of initiatives and budget allocation announced for various sectors. For instance, the Government’s soft stimulus of mammoth Rs 20 lakh crore package to COVID battered MSME sector without any collateral is encouraging. But, where are CSOs mentioned in the recent World Bank’s praise for the $1 billion ‘Atmanirbhar (self-relianc