ISLAMABAD: The Indian government has great expectations from the incumbent government in Pakistan to improve the overall relations between the two nations.

This was stated by renowned Indian economist Dr Rajiv Kumar while speaking at a seminar organised by the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) here on Monday.

“What we see from our side about Pakistan’s current situation, we are now in a dire need to further strengthen the economic, political and social relations,” he said.

The visiting economist said India was looking for the possible ventures of working in provinces that have boundary with Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan.

“If we talk especially about Pakistan, our focus would be on relations of Punjab to Punjab, Karachi to Mumbai, etc.”

Indian economist says we need to strengthen economic, political and social relations

Dr Rajiv, who is the author of several books and is a senior fellow at the Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi, said India was hopeful that relations with Pakistan would be normalised in the near future.

He talked about the likely implications of the May 2014 electoral outcome for the Indian economy, policy and its security perceptions. Secondly, he spoke on the state of economy with an attempted forecast for growth prospects and the downside risks associated with it.

The expert also talked about India’s likely growth strategy and economic prospects in the coming years and its implications for the neighbours.

Talking about the regional cooperation, he said the government of India had a clear focus on working with the neighbours.

He said the agriculture and water stability was also one of the prime focuses of the Modi government, and this can also be a good cooperative issue for the two countries.

He said for the government of India a very strong economic relation and cooperation was a key to success. “Better relationship with the neighbours is a great success and our premier knows that the regional economic cooperation and economic development is important and he is trying to have better regional cooperation and economic relation.”

He said for success India and Pakistan would have to work together for the regional development and cooperation.

“Now the focus must be on people to people, business to business, government to government and non-governmental organisation to non-governmental organisation relations, and this need to be strengthened.”

Speaking on the occasion, Dr Abid Qaiyum Suleri, Executive Director SDPI, said relations needed to improve between both the countries.

He said the two countries also needed to talk about mutual cooperation in areas such as the recent floods in the region and food security cooperation.

Former ambassador Shafqat Kakakhel highlighted the need for cooperation between the two countries.

Published in Dawn, September 23rd , 2014