Australia to invest $280 million to boost economic ties with India

A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Australian counterpart Scott Morrison conducted a virtual meeting, Australia plans to infuse more than $280 million to boost economic partnership with India. It would comprise collaboration in several areas like space, research and green steel. It comes in the backdrop of the Supply Chain Resilience Initiative (SCRI) rolled out by India, Japan and Australia last year targeted at decreasing the dependence on China. Besides, India and Australia are additionally likely to sign the interim bilateral free trade agreement by month-end. On Tuesday, Australia’s Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment, Dan Tehan told the media that his government is dedicated to the India Economic Strategy and its ambitious objectives to lift India into its leading three export markets by 2035. The Morrison Government is infusing more than $280 million to increase cooperation with India to boost their economic relationship and support jobs and businesses in both nations. He further said that Australian investment in India would comprise $16.6 million towards strengthening linkages with India’s key policy and finance institutions and $8.9 million towards funding improved business engagement. Outlining major areas of investment, Tehan told the media that $17.2 million will be infused towards Australia-India Strategic Research Fund, $35.7 million for a Green Steel Partnership, $25.2 million to develop the Australian Space Agency’s International Space Investment initiative and $28.1 million to roll out a Centre for Australia-India Relations to deepen community partnerships. India is likely to bridge the trade gap between India and Australia that has doubled to $6.46 billion in favour of Australia, as against $2.46 billion in 2021. While New Delhi's exports to Canberra increased 101% in the April to December period, its imports were 130% higher as against the comparable period in 2021. Image Source Also read: Australia leads the world in solar per capita with 1 kW/person