Getting down to business

Chancellor Angela Merkel’s visit to India and her meetings with Prime Minister Narendra Modi represented a much-needed dosis realitaet, or “dose of reality”, for both India and Germany. The fact that Ms. Merkel came to India despite a brewing refugee crisis back home that kept both her Economy Minister and Defence Minister back in Berlin, shows the importance that she accords to the relationship. Mr. Modi, during his third meeting with Ms. Merkel in six months, demonstrated that he sees Germany as an important partner in trade, a provider of technology and means to clean energy, and as a partner on the UN stage. Their meetings in Delhi and Bengaluru were, however, shorn of the kind of pomp, splendour, and joint photo-ops that were the hallmarks of other bilaterals. This was for a reason: both countries seem to have realised it is time to get down to business.

As a result, Ms. Merkel spoke candidly of the problems that German businesses have faced in operating in India, and hoped that the new agreement for a special “fast-track” mechanism would help them secure licences and clearances expeditiously. For his part, Mr. Modi must be lauded for a grounded speech in Bengaluru, telling the Chancellor what India hopes to become, rather than making any bombastic claims on where the Indian economy has reached. “We’re committed to doing everything possible to convert these analyses into reality,” the Prime Minister said about the recent positive prognoses from the International Monetary Fund and the World Economic Forum about India. He listed 11 initiatives taken in order to achieve the immediate priorities of improving India’s ease-of-doing-business ranking, make a push to take manufacturing to 25 per cent of GDP in order to increase jobs, and for investment. Ms. Merkel’s response has been welcoming of the sentiments, but watchful of delivery before making any big commitments. Even the German announcements of €1 billion towards solar energy and a like sum for clean energy constitute a fraction of India’s requirements, given the decision to increase renewable energy capacity four-fold to 175 GW, for which India has told the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change it needs $2.5 trillion by 2030. The realism was particularly welcome when it came to the Joint Declaration on Intent on education: both reversed earlier positions on language studies, to ensure that modern Indian languages would be available to German students while Indian students would continue to be able to opt for German, without giving up Sanskrit. It is to be hoped that the template of the visit is an indicator of the future: of a government transitioning from the euphoria and excitement of its bilateral forays in its first year, getting down to brass tacks in the second.