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Chandigarh:
With things turning out to be a "lot calmer" in recent months
vis-à-vis Indian students in Australia, Australian High
Commissioner to India Peter N. Varghese said that the safety of
Indian students there is an issue that is "behind us".
Varghese said the Australian government had taken a series of
measures which had led to "things being a lot calmer than they
were 12 months ago".
"Look, I think that the issue of safety of Indian students is
behind us really. We have taken a series of measures at federal
government level, state government level and in relation to our
police forces," Varghese told IANS in an interview here.
"All of those measures, which range from law enforcement to
registration of educational institutions and to changes to our
migration policy - separating out education and migration. I think
all of those have helped us to manage this issue and I think that
things are a lot calmer now than they were 12 months ago," the
envoy said.
There had been a string of attacks on Indian students in Australia
over the past two years, causing an uproar in India. Nitin Garg,
an Indian student, was fatally stabbed in Melbourne in a race
attack that took place in January last year.
Varghese said that External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna, who is
leaving for Australia Tuesday for a two-day framework dialogue
meeting, will be briefed on the issue of safety measures for
Indian students in Australia.
"I think there is a recognition by the Indian government that we
have taken the matter seriously enough and taken action on it. We
would be happy to give Mr. Krishna an update on how things are and
a full briefing on the measures that are taken," he said.
"We do regular surveys of attitudes of international students and
the most recent surveys have shown that the Indian students in
Australia continue to be very positive about their experience in
Australia," Varghese asserted. Since a majority of the student
community in Australia - which is around 300,000 - is from Punjab,
the Australian government sees Punjab as an important place.
"At the people-to-people level, it (Punjab) is very important. We
have a large number of student migration from Punjab. Because our
trade with India is so dominated by commodities, Punjab is less
important on the trading side because you are not a big buyer of
coal, copper etc," he said.
Figures show that student migration from India to Australia has
dropped by as much as 80 percent in recent months.
"We would not have opened a (trade) office here if we were not
interested in expanding the relationship and if we didn't
recognize that it is an important relationship for us."
"In Punjab, at the moment, not much is there on the investment
front. The sort of things we are looking at is doing in the
agriculture sector. That would involve more Australian technology
and expertise than investment. Educational linkages also do not
necessarily require investment," Varghese said.
But he added that there could be some investment in the IT
(information technology) sector even though it is early days on
this front.
"One of the reasons we set up a (trade) office here is that we
would like to do some scoping of the opportunities here. We will
see if we can make it more specific."
The high commissioner said that investment between India and
Australia has not been as much as the potential is.
"Investment has kind of lagged behind in the economic
relationship. I am very keen to see investment in both directions.
We are now seeing some substantial Indian investment in Australia
in coal which is very good," he said.
"The Australian investment in India is still very low and I think
that more than anything else, it reflects on the trade between
both countries. The big ticket items in Australian exports to
India are all commodities and they don't generate big investment."
"Over time as the economic relationship base broadens and
Australian companies get in other sectors, we will see more
Australian investment into India. I want to see that happening
more often," the high commissioner added.
(Jaideep Sarin can be contacted at jaideep.s@ians.in)
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