A veritable bridge for Indians

Since then, Arab News has been closely associated with the community by bringing them news from back home and keeping them informed of developments taking place in the Kingdom. The first high-level Indian delegation to the Kingdom was headed by Indian Premier Indira Gandhi in 1982. This was the event that set the tone for the multifaceted and cordial relations between Saudi Arabia and India.
In December 1994, the then Finance Minister Manmohan Singh visited Saudi Arabia for the meeting of the Indo-Saudi Joint Commission. Shortly afterward, Prince Khaled bin Sultan, assistant minister of defense and aviation for military affairs, visited India.
Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah visited India on a four-day state visit in January 2006. He was the chief guest at India's Republic Day celebrations.
During the visit, the two countries signed four accords. These included a Memorandum of Understanding on combating crime, an agreement on avoidance of double taxation, bilateral investment protection agreement and an agreement for cooperation in the fields of youth and sports.
In a special convocation convened by Jamia Millia Islamia, King Abdullah was awarded an honorary doctorate. The Delhi Declaration was signed at the conclusion of the historic visit .
The monarch's visit was followed by the visit of Indian Premier Manmohan Singh early this year. During the visit, the Riyadh Declaration was signed. Ten agreements covering various fields such as security, science, and technology, culture and media were also signed during the visit.
Appreciating Saudi Arabia's role as a reliable partner in meeting India's energy needs, Singh mentioned that conditions were ripe for moving beyond a traditional buyer-seller relationship to a comprehensive energy partnership. He pointed out that Indian companies were well equipped to participate in upstream and downstream oil and gas projects in the Kingdom.
"We should also establish new partnerships in the area of new and renewable energy through the sharing of clean technologies and joint collaboration," he stressed,
The robust growth of the two economies offers immense opportunities for business communities from both countries. Bilateral trade reached almost $25 billion in 2008-09. Indian investments in the Kingdom have risen to $2 billion covering over 500 joint ventures. Several major Indian companies have already established their presence in the Kingdom. RITES, an Indian public sector company recently won a contract to participate in the North-South Railway project. The Indian Embassy, led by Ambassador Talmiz Ahmad, has a Community Welfare Wing that acts as a coordinator between the employer and the employee during labor disputes. A number of such cases have been settled and the mission takes further action in case of problems that go unresolved.
Recently, the Union Cabinet of India approved the setting up of an Indian Community Welfare Fund (ICWF) in Indian missions in 17 countries, including the Kingdom, to meet expenses for the welfare of overseas Indian citizens who are in distress.
The proposed fund by the Indian government, estimated at Rs.1.6 crore, is aimed at providing boarding and lodging for distressed overseas Indian workers in the domestic and unskilled worker sectors, extending emergency medical care to those in need, providing air passage to stranded overseas Indians, providing initial legal assistance to overseas Indians in deserving cases and paying for airlifting the remains to India or local cremation/burial of deceased overseas Indians in cases where a sponsor is unable or unwilling to do so as per the contract and the family is unable to meet the cost.
The fund would also assist overseas Indian workers deceived by unscrupulous intermediaries in the host countries, runaway housemaids, those who are victims of accidents, deserted spouses of overseas Indians or undocumented overseas Indian workers in need of emergency.
Apart from the reporting of news and views of Indians in the Kingdom, Arab News proved a veritable bridge for Indians seeking news about their homeland. Contentious social issues, political dramas and the slow rumble of an economic change in India during the eighties and nineties were all brought to them via news agencies or established correspondents from India.
But what proved eye-catching was the growing number of Indians commenting on issues back home in the "Letters to the Editor" column.
That Arab News' coverage of the demolition of the historic Babri Masjid by Hindu zealots and the subsequent riots in Bombay was praised and discussed in the Opinion pages bore testimony to the growing affinity between Indians and Arab News.
This led to Arab News tackling news from India in depth, which in turn provided a platform for interaction. The cycle continues.