By FGR Bureau
The rapid pace of globalization in the 21 Century has been instrumental in bringing about scientific advances and industrial development and made significant improvements in the lives of many people in developing countries. However, a large number of people have still been unable to benefit from it and remain cut off from opportinities for prosperity. While the gap between the wealthy and impoverished and urban and rural areas continues to widen there are also discerning other problems like spread of diseases, environmental destruction, regional conflicts etc. Such problems are no longer confined to a single region or country, but are increasingly global in scale and cannot be solved by individual countries. They must be addressed by the entire human race.
Hence, it is important that each individual and nation understands these problems and tackles them together. Japan, as a member of the international community, is actively engaged in helping to solve these problems by promoting soci-economic development in the developing world through its Official Development Assistance (ODA).
Established as an indenedent administrative institution, Japan International Cooperation Agency or JICA aims to contribute to the contribution of international cooperation as well as to the sound development of the Japanese and the global economies by supporting the socio-economic development, recovery or economic stability of developing regions.
JICA works at the level of ordinary people to help developing countries become self-reliant in pursuing their own socio-economic development. According to a JICA publication, its aim is to act as a bridge between Japan and developing countries, so that the knowledge and experience of the Japanese people can be shared, and developing countries can strengthen their own problem-solving capability.
Japan’s ODA to India first commenced in 1958, when a concessionary Japanese ODA loan of JPY 18 billion was extended to supplement the efforts of implementing the Second Five Year Plan at the request of the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. A part of the proceeds of the first ODA Loan was used for power generation in Bhakra Nangal Project and Hirakud Hydroelectric Project. Assistance to industrial development followed thereafter, and in the 1990s, assistance was extended to infrastructure development projects like improvement of National Highways and construction of Anpara Thermal Power Plant, in the past two decades, more ODA Loans have been committed for water supply and sewerage, forestry and irrigation projects to provide fillip to poverty reduction as well as to address environmental problems in India.
Technical cooperation with India started in 1966. One of the early instances was the establishment of Indo-Japanese Agricultural Extension centres across the country, in which the Japanese method of paddy cultivation was introduced and model farms were set up to contribute towards achieveing food self-sufficiency in India. Numerous technical cooperation projects have been implemented over a period of time, mainly in the agriculture and health sectors. Projects for infrastructure and facility development have also been implemented. During the past four decades,more than 5, 000 Indian personnel have participated in training courses in Japan and more than 800 Japanese experts have come to India to offer their expertise.
Grant Aid of Japanese government has also covered various areas in India, including construction of medical research instituions, and construcition of the Nizamuddin Bridge over river Yamuna in Delhi. JICA is the world’s largest bilateral aid agency and India is its largest development partner. The major areas of JICA-India cooperation include transportation, Water and Sanitation, energy, forestry, health, agriculture and rural livelihhods, and technical training etc.
