aNYa Blogs!

The maturing of India - on Indian aid for Katrina victims

Barely a couple of months after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's US visit and the announcement of a joint US-India Disaster Relief Initiative to contribute to disaster preparedness and relief operations, in response to the wide and crippling devastation caused by hurrican Katrina, the Indian government released $5 million in aid to the US. The US .. the worlds largest donor had earlier let it be known that it would accept help from outside. Aside from the $5 mil given to the American Red Cross, and Indian military transporter plane carried 25 tonnes of aid including 50,000 first aid kits, 25,000 cots and 500,000 packets of rations.

The Russian built transporter has been sent to "stand in solidarity and sympathy with them in these trying times”. The plane also carried its own boats and a team from the Indian Army Medical Corps. The team includes a surgeon, an anaesthetist, doctors, nurses and paramedics who have had first-hand experience in handling the effects of natural disasters. The team also brings in its own stock of medicines including medicines to deal with water borne diseases as well as a portable water purification plant.

So whats the big deal right? The big deal is that India needs to act as a responsible, developed nation if it wants the world to accept it as a developed nation; to rid itself of the 'developing' tag.. which it very much wants and needs to do in order to be taken seriously in any matter. It needs to rise up to the responsibilities of a big player in the world. And this is exactly what it is doing. If we look at some natural disasters over the last year -