INDIA AND BANGLADESH

National Thermal Power Corporation of India and Power Development Bangladesh signed three agreements on 20 April 2013 in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The agreements were a part of setting up of the biggest ever joint venture project of 1320 Megawatt Coal based power plant. This project is to be developed at an expense of 1.6 billion US dollars.

The pacts three pacts inked for the 1320MW coal-based Bangladesh-India Friendship Power Company (Pvt) Limited (BIFPCL) include:

• Power Purchase Agreement (PPA)
• Implementation Agreement (IA)
• Supplementary Joint Venture Agreement (SJVA)

P. Umashankar, Union Power Secretary of India led the Indian delegation at the signing ceremony of the mega project. The MoU for India’s cooperation in Power Sector were identified as exchange of power, grid connectivity, energy efficiency and electricity generation with Bangladesh, during the visit of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to India in January 2011. In January 2013, NTPC and Bangladesh’s Power Development Board (PDB) signed a Joint Venture Agreement (JVA) with equal equity participation (50:50) for development of power projects in Bangladesh. This project is proposed to be developed over an area of 1834 acres of land near Mongla Seaport in Rampal Upazila. It is the largest ever foreign investment in the power Sector in Bangladesh as well as the first power plant that is being developed by NTPC outside India. The power plant will be developed with a super critical technology. As per the environmentalists, the joint-power project will be disastrous to the environment and vegetation of the Sunderbans – the world’s largest mangrove forest. The country has also seen many projects for the cancellation of the project by the Government.

India and Bangladesh discussed for a Joint Collaboration on Mega-Film on Liberation War

Manish Tewari, Minister of Information and Broadcasting of India on 11 April 2013 met Hasanul Haq Inu, Bangladesh Minister for Information & Broadcasting and discussed on different issues including issues related to Information and Broadcasting sector of the two countries. Both the countries agreed on the issue of exploring setting up of a Joint Working Group in the Information and Broadcasting Sector.

Issues Discussed and Conclusions Reached

• Ministers from both the nations discussed upon joint collaboration for production of a mega film that depicts the War of Liberation. The two ministers agreed to work on finalization of a road map in context of the film proposal. The Bangladesh minister asked for the names of the soldiers, who laid down their lives during the war to recognize them.
• Ministers also agreed to explore the possibility of setting up of a Joint Working Group on the critical sectors of the Information and Broadcasting domain. The Working Group would provide a roadmap for future collaborations between the two countries.
• A formal request to downlink the TV channels of Bangladesh through the Private distribution network was made by the Bangladesh Information Minister.
• Agreement was reached between the two ministers to collaborate between the Prasar Bharti and Bangladesh State Television in view of the Memorandum of Understanding that was signed between the two entities in 2011. The MoU had focused on mutual cooperation in the broadcast of television programmes between the two broadcasters. It was also mentioned that both countries could consider exchange of programmes and also explore the possibility of executive TV co-production.
• Discussions on identifying the ways for strengthening collaboration as far as training and capacity building was concerned between institutions of mutual interests.
• Agreement on exchange of archival material between the two countries was reached between the two ministers, like major policy initiatives undertaken by the Government for exponential growth of the sector.