Modi to visit Nepal on May 11, travel to Janakpur as ties back on track
NEW DELHI: In another sign of the restoration of normalcy in bilateral relations between India and Nepal, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to visit Kathmandu and Janakpur on May 11, according to two Nepali officials, one Indian official and one political leader involved with planning the visit.
Modi’s visit, which is at the planning stage, would come a little over a month after Nepal’s new Prime Minister KP Oli visited Delhi between April 6 and 8 on his first foreign visit after being elected.
Apart from Kathmandu, Modi is expected to travel to Janakpur, an important religious centre in the Tarai plains, close to the border with Bihar, and where Lord Ram was supposed to have wed Sita according to the Ramayana.
An official in the Nepal government said: “We have been asked to make preparation s for his (Modi’s) Janakpur visit. It has been long due.” Modi was supposed to have visited Janakpur in November 2014, when he went to Nepal to attend the SAARC summit, but this did not materialise because of objections from sections of the Nepal government.
This will be Modi’s third trip to Nepal in his tenure, but the first after the promulgation of the new Nepali constitution in 2015, which India had “noted” and not ‘welcomed’. This had generated deep bilateral discord. I
LONDON: India, as one of the foremost cricket-playing countries, offered on Friday to train youngsters from Commonwealth countries at its world-class facilities under a plan that drew much applause at the meeting of heads of state and government in London.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi told the heads of 52 other countries that India would train 30 boys and 30 girls under the age of 16 every year with the help of the BCCI. The offer was widely welcomed, officials said.
India also committed itself to doubling its contribution to Commonwealth offices of small states in New York and Geneva, and to the Commonwealth Secretariat in London to enhance its ability to deliver tailor-made assistance to smaller countries.
A legacy of colonial rule, cricket has emerged as one of the most popular sports in Commonwealth countries such as India, Australia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, South Africa and West Indies. The idea is to reach out to smaller countries that do not have similar cricket facilities and access to coaches, and lay a network of what will be the future generation of the Commonwealth. Out of 53 countries in the
bloc, 31 are small states.
Rudrendra Tandon, joint secretary in the external affairs ministry, said: “The overall objective of the Prime Minister’s participation at this Commonwealth Heads Of Government Meeting (is signalling) our stepped up engagement with the Common-
wealth. “It conveys India’s desire to see the Commonwealth increase its focus on developing country priorities.” India’s capacity-building efforts includes training programmes for island and coastal states at the National Institute for Geography in Dona Paula, Goa.