Doha: (NHRC:17/8/2009): His Excellency, NHRC president, Dr. Ali Ben Smaikh al-Merry on Monday 17/8/2009 received at NHRC HQ, Her Excellency, Indian Ambassador, Mrs. Deepa Gopalan Wadhwa.
Bilateral relations and a number of other topics of mutual interest were taken up during the meeting at the enc of which Dr. al-Merry presented the ambassador with a souvenir gift.
The BBC’s country profile dossier maintains that the world’s largest democracy and second most populous country emerged as a major power in the 1990s. It is militarily strong, has a big cultural influence and a fast-growing and powerful economy.
The vast and diverse Indian sub-continent – from the mountainous Afghan frontier to the jungles of Burma – was under foreign rule from the early 1800s until the demise of the British Raj in 1947.
The subsequent partition of the sub-continent – into present-day India and Pakistan – sowed the seeds for future conflict. There have been three wars between India and its arch-rival Pakistan since 1947, two of them over the disputed territory of Kashmir.
A peace process, which started in 2004, stayed on track despite tension over Kashmir and several high-profile bombings until the Mumbai attacks of November 2008, which police blamed on Pakistani militants. India announced that the process was on pause the following month.
From the late 1980s India began to open up to the outside world, encouraging economic reform and foreign investment. It is now courted by the world’s leading economic and political powers, including its one-time foe China.
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