Bill to strengthen India-US partnership introduced in House of Representatives

A new bill has been reportedly introduced in the United States House of Representatives to strengthen the partnership between India and the US. The new bill aims at enhancing shared values in education, conflict resolution and development. According to international media reports, on December 19, Georgia John Lewis, a Democratic lawmaker introduce the bill that sought to 'affirm' the friendship between both the nations and to set up a bilateral partnership for collaboration to advance 'development and shared values and other purposes'. The funding authorised to USAID for the foundation is reportedly $30 million every year from the year 2020 through 2025.

The bill currently has six co-sponsors and all of them are Democratic. Three of them are reportedly Indian-American lawmakers, including Congresswoman from Washington state Pramila Jayapal. According to reports, the bill was introduced on the occasion of the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi and it proposes three initiatives, all of them named jointly after Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King. The bill reportedly includes the Gandhi-King Scholarly Exchange Initiative with an allocation of $2 million for each fiscal from 2020 through 2025. It also proposes the setting up of Gandhi-King Global Academy and the Gandhi-King Development Foundation. 

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The three initiatives

According to international media reports, the first initiative, the Gandhi-King Scholarly Exchange would comprise an annual educational forum for scholars from India and the US held alternately in the two countries. This would focus on the study of the works and philosophies of Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King and visits to historical sites. The second initiative, Gandhi-King Academy would be a professional development training initiative on conflict resolution, with a reported allocation of $2 million for each fiscal year from 2020 through 2025, implemented through the United States Institute of Peace (USIP). The third initiative, the Gandhi-King Development Foundation would reportedly be established by the USAID under the laws of India. 

(With ANI inputs)

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