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The meeting also discussed a proposal on free social security to certain sections of the workforce with the government paying the premiums on these. The Atal pension scheme, and the PM’S life and accident insurance scheme could be tweaked as social security offerings for workers, this person added.

At the same time, the officials also agreed on the need to push these reforms faster. India now ranks at 77 in the World Bank’s “ease of doing business” on Wednesday, improving by 23 places over its 2017 rank on the back of six major reforms. Labour reformsandamendmentsin land laws are the two crucial reforms that are stuck due to lack of political consensus.

Niti Ayog and the labour ministry have been entrusted the task of talking to states and bringing them on board. Meetings with trade unions are also on the cards even as almost all of them are opposed to these codes. “Out of the four codes, only the Wage Code bill has come in Parliament and is being reviewed by a Parliamentary panel. We have rejected some of the provisions of the bill. In principle, we are totally opposed to the proposed Industrial Relations code as it makes almost impossible to have a trade union,” said CITU general secretary Tapan Sen. tres, already being launched in all 34 provinces of the country, including areas contested by the Taliban. A total of $200 million has been committed for these projects, of which $120 million has been used.

Bangladesh has been largest beneficiary of lines of credit, having been provided $7.86 billion, a majority of it in the past four years. Much of the funds are meant for connectivity and infrastructure projects such as ports, railway lines and roads. India is now set to begin tendering for the transmission and distribution network for the 2.4 GWE Rooppur nuclear power plant being built in northwest Bangladesh jointly by India and Russia.

The Indian assistance, however, is dwarfed by the billions of dollars poured into the region by China. Beijing does not publicise official figures for loans and assistance, though figures from the American Enterprise Institute show that between 2012 and 2018, China invested $8.06 billion in Myanmar, $43 billion in Bangladesh, $20 billion in Sri Lanka, $5.45 billion in Nepal and $420 million in Afghanistan.

The Chinese assistance has come with fears of “debt traps”, with observers citing the example of Sri Lanka’s Hambantota port, which Colombo recently handed over to Beijing along with 15,000 acres around it for 99 years to erase $1 billion in debt.

The people cited in the first instance were reluctant to characterise the Indian-aided projects, which are managed and implemented under the external affairs ministry’s development partnership administration as a race with China. “The defining feature of our partnerships is that they are demand driven and need-based. It’s what the local governments want from us and part of their development trajectory,” said the first person.

“Our projects don’t push partners into problems of debt repayment,” a second person said. At the same time, the projects are aimed at improving connectivity with India, boosting trade opportunities and creating opportunities for Indian firms. Nitin Pai, director of The Takshashila Institution, said these development partnerships are one way of signalling that as India becomes more prosperous, it is willing to share its prosperity with its neighbours. “This can only be the first step as true development partnership needs open and free trade across the region, but some countries don’t want it.” “There is also no point in getting into an aid race with China, which has no government controls. India’s strength is in building grassroots democracy and pluralism, not propping up dictators.”