Sydney, 12 Oct: External Affairs Minister S Jaishan-kar said that he took up the issue of visa backlog and mutual recognition of degrees with Australian authorities, who assured him that the problems would be resolved soon.
\nJaishankar, who is on a two-day visit to Australia, said this on Tuesday during an address to the Indian community here.
\n\u201cAnd I want to tell you that it was something that I took up with different ministers when I was in Canberra. We have a particular problem that students are facing,\u201d he said.
\nThe minister said that he was assured that the situation has improved and about 77,000 Indian students are back in Australia.
\n\u201cBut you all know that the numbers should be and could be much higher and I was assured that by the end of the year the visa backlog, particularly with respect to students, would be cleared,\u201d he said.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s not just students because there\u2019s a community there are also family reasons for people to travel. I think there\u2019s an appreciation today of the importance of resuming tourism in a big way,\u201d he said.
\nHe expressed hope that this is \u201cone of the big disruptions of the Covid era that we will be able to put behind us in the coming year.\u201d
\nThe Indian community in Australia continues to grow in size and importance, with a population of about seven hundred thousand. India is one of the top sources of skilled immigrants to Australia. Approximately 105,000 students presently study in Australian universities. After the UK, India is the second largest migrant group in Australia in 2020.
\nJaishankar said two issues \u2014 partnership on mobility and mutual recognition degrees and qualifications \u2014 would be transformational for the bilateral relationship.
\nPartnership on mobility \u201cmeans that Indian skills and talents that are in demand in Australia will have a legal framework, an agreed methodology by which they move from one country to another,\u201d he said.
\nNow, India is reaching such agreements with a lot of countries like Japan, the UK and France.
\n\u201cWe are close to concluding one with Germany. And we, I think we\u2019ve done some preliminary work in this with Australia. So, I\u2019m very much hoping that that is one area where we can see rapid progress because we know that in many domains, there are skill shortages in Australia,\u201d he said.
\n\u201cIf people are moving from one country to another from one economy to the other is the issue of mutual recognition of degrees and qualifications. So that too is something which we are working on,\u201d he said.
\nHe said there was also an interest reiterated during his visit for Australia to open a consulate in Bengaluru.
\n\u201cIt is something which we look forward to. And I very much hope that we\u2019ll be able to open additional consulates in Australia in the near future. And that I think is also something which is a very practical point of interest for the community,\u201d he said.
\nHe also spoke about the impact of the pandemic on India.
\n\u201cEvery country in the world has gone through a tough time in the last three years. You know there is no country, not one which has not been deeply affected by COVID-19. Today, what is important is which country is coming out of covid in a better way, in a faster way, having learnt the lessons of it, having used that period really to reassess itself and to reinvent itself and prepare for a post-Covid world,\u201d he said.
\n\u201cIndia is today very strongly on a recovery path,\u201d Jaishankar said.
\n\u201cWe have dealt with Covid with a great deal of determination with a lot of fortitude but also with a vision and in many ways with a great deal of foresight. This period has first of all seen a massive upgrade in India\u2019s health infrastructure.\u201d
\n\u201cWhat normally would have taken us decades to do actually happened due to Covid in a matter of a few months,\u201d he said.
\nThe minister also shared how digitisation transformed India.
\n\u201cWe are able to deliver public services in India on a scale that you cannot even imagine. It is happening only because today we have the digital backbone and the leadership. Prime minister\u2019s vision of how to apply technology for good governance that is today yielding results on the ground. \u201c
\nHe said one of the central planks of India\u2019s Covid response was to ensure that, unlike 100 years ago when the Spanish flu came when more people died of hunger than they did of flu, this time around nobody will die of hunger.
\nHe said the government\u2019s initiative to get everyone a bank account helped it to transfer money to the beneficiaries during the COVID-19 pandemic.
\n\u201cBecause today there is a digital backbone where you know the beneficiaries are identified, they are known, they are certified, they are monitored,\u201d he said.
\nHe said it shows \u201conce in a century event can be tackled if you have good governance, if you have strong leadership, the support and good wishes of the people.\u201d
\nHe said Prime Minister Narendra Modi has the vision that India become a modern, developed nation in the next quarter century.
\n\u201cIt means better infrastructure, better human resources. It means investing in people in different ways. It means dealing with health, correcting gender discrimination and gender imbalance,\u201d he said.
\n\u201cIndia has come through a test like everybody else but we have come through it with a great deal of resolve but have also utilised this period to bring about very major changes in India. Those changes in India today position us very much better for what can be done,\u201d he said.
\nHe told the Indian community that now they will see an India which is much more connected to the world, and which will be more relevant to the world.
\nHe said last year alone India\u2019s exports are the highest ever
\n\u201cNow the world will see an India which will look at the world with greater confidence, will engage much more in different fields and which will fulfil its global responsibilities on the big issues of the day like climate change, terrorism, and pandemic\u201d, he said. (PTI)
\n\u201cIt is the country whose global footprint will increase,\u201d he said.
\n\u201cIn all of this we obviously look for good, reliable, comfortable partners\u201d and Australia today would surely be among those. But to advance all of this we ultimately need your support,\u201d Jaishankar concluded. (PTI)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sydney, 12 Oct: External Affairs Minister S Jaishan-kar said that he took up the issue of visa backlog and mutual recognition of degrees with Australian authorities, who assured him that the problems would be resolved soon. Jaishankar, who is on a two-day visit to Australia, said this on Tuesday during an address to the Indian […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-202580","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-national"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=202580"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/202580\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=202580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=202580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=202580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}