India navy delivers aid to quake-hit Myanmar
India's navy on Saturday delivered hundreds of tonnes of food aid to earthquake-hit Myanmar, a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi met reclusive junta chief Min Aung Hlaing.
India was among the first countries to rush aid and rescue teams to its war-torn neighbour after a devastating 7.7-magnitude quake on March 28.
The death toll from the earthquake has risen to more than 3,300, Myanmar state media said Saturday.
More than one week after the disaster, desperate survivors remain without enough food and shelter.
The latest aid from India comprised 442 tonnes of food including rice, cooking oil, noodles and biscuits, the Indian embassy in Yangon said.
The consignment arrived via an Indian navy ship, INS Gharial, at Thilawa port.
Modi held a rare face-to-face meeting on Friday with Min Aung Hlaing on the sidelines of the Bangkok BIMSTEC meeting -- the grouping of the seven nations on the Bay of Bengal.
"India is doing whatever is possible to assist our sisters and brothers of Myanmar in this critical time," Modi was quoted as saying in a government statement on Friday.
India's foreign ministry said that Modi told the junta chief that there was "no military solution to the conflict", and stressed the "importance of early restoration of a democratic process through inclusive and credible elections".
Min Aung Hlaing's armed forces have ruled Myanmar since a 2021 coup, when they wrested power from the civilian government of Aung San Suu Kyi, sparking a multi-sided conflict.
The junta leader had issued a rare appeal for international aid following the earthquake, indicating the severity of the crisis.
Previous military regimes in the country have shunned foreign assistance even after major natural disasters.
Sri Lanka also sent a medical team and a plane loaded with supplies, many funded by donations from Buddhist temples, to Myanmar, a defence official said.
Colombo has pledged more than $1 million to help quake victims in the fellow Buddhist nation.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Tribune
5 days ago
- Daily Tribune
Modi opens Kashmir rail link
Prime Minister Narendra Modi made his first visit to Kashmir yesterday since a conflict with arch-rival Pakistan, opening a strategic railway line to the region he called 'the crown jewel of India'. Modi launched a string of projects worth billions of dollars for the northern territory. Nuclear-armed India and Pakistan fought a four-day conflict last month, their worst standoff since 1999, before a ceasefire was agreed on May 10. 'Pakistan will never forget... its shameful loss,' the premier told crowds a month since India launched strikes on its neighbour after an attack on tourists in Kashmir. 'Friends, today's event is a grand festival of India's unity and firm resolve,' Modi said after striding across the soaring bridge to formally launch it for rail traffic. 'This is a symbol and celebration of rising India,' he said of the Chenab Bridge which connects two mountains. The Chenab span is the 'world's highest railway arch bridge', sitting 359 metres (1,117 feet) above a river. While several road and pipeline bridges are higher, Guinness World Records confirmed that Chenab trumps the previous highest railway bridge, the Najiehe in China. Modi called it 'an extraordinary feat of architecture' that 'will improve connectivity' by providing the first rail link from the Indian plains up to mountainous Kashmir. With 36 tunnels and 943 bridges, the new railway runs for 272 kilometres (169 miles) and connects Udhampur, Srinagar and Baramulla. It is expected to halve the travel time between the town of Katra in the Hindu-majority Jammu region and Srinagar, the main city in Kashmir, to around three hours. The new route will facilitate the movement of people and goods, as well as troops, that was previously possible only via treacherous mountain roads and by air.
Daily Tribune
5 days ago
- Daily Tribune
Indian PM to attend G7 summit in Canada
India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi said yesterday he will attend the Group of Seven leaders summit in Canada this month after receiving an invitation from the new Canadian premier. India is not a member of the G7 but Modi has been invited to attend previous summits since 2019, when France invited him to Biarritz. 'Glad to receive a call from Prime Minister Mark Carney of Canada,' Modi said in a statement posted on social media. 'Congratulated him on his recent election victory and thanked him for the invitation to the G7 Summit in Kananaskis later this month... look forward to our meeting at the summit.' A statement from Carney's office said the call addressed 'the longstanding relationship between Canada and India,' adding that Carney was looking forward to hosting Modi at the G7. The statements boosted hopes of a reset of fraught relations between New Delhi and Ottawa.
Daily Tribune
7 days ago
- Daily Tribune
India sets date of population and caste census
India will conduct a census in 2027, its first since 2011, the government said yesterday, which will also count caste -- an accounting not done since the country's independence. 'It has been decided to conduct Population Census-2027 in two phases along with enumeration of castes,' the Ministry of Home Affairs said in a statement. Most of the vast nation will take part in the census on March 1, 2027, but for the high-altitude Himalayan regions, the counting will take place earlier before snow sets in -- on October 1, 2026. Those areas include the states of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, as well as in Ladakh, and the contested region of Jammu and Kashmir. More than two-thirds of India's 1.4 billion people are estimated to be on the lower rungs of a millennia-old social hierarchy that divides Hindus by function and social standing. The decision to include detailed caste data as part of the next census -- originally due in 2021 -- was approved by a government meeting headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in May. Caste data was last collected as part of the official census exercise in 1931, during British colonial rule that ended with Indian independence 16 years later. Successive governments have since resisted updating the sensitive demographic data, citing administrative complexity and fears of social unrest. A caste survey was conducted in 2011 but its results were never made public because they were purportedly inaccurate. That survey was separate from the 2011 general census, the last time India collected demographic data.
