An unusual book titled ‘Aviation and Foreign Policy: Convergence’ by Dr Sanat Kaul was launched at Roseate Hotel, Aerocity, New Delhi on 26th August 2022. Over 40 eminent persons consisting of Indian and foreign diplomats, retired military officers, civil aviation officers and tourism experts attended the launch hosted by Roseate Hotel, Aerocity, New Delhi in collaboration with International Foundation for Aviation, Aerospace and Drones( IFFAAD) and KW publishers.
The book dwells on an unusual topic of relationship or lack of it between Aviation policy and Foreign policy touching the regional areas around India. It advocates the need for connectivity to these areas and includes incentives and even subsidies ( where possible) online of the domestic UDAN. It also discusses the fast-growing India outbound traffic and how to incentivise and divert it to locations of our political advantage.
It further discusses how China uses its vast outbound passenger traffic as a part of its foreign policy to reward and punish countries, which India cannot easily do. It also analyses the shortfalls of our Aviation policy and how Indian Airlines got disadvantaged in international coverage. Finally, the book points out the lacuna in its Act East policy by missing out on the soft power of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and why India should not leverage the advantage by allowing international flights for only high-value low-volume tourism as has been approved by the Supreme Court.
After the launch ceremony, there was a lively panel discussion with Mr. KC Singh IFS ( retd) former Secretary Ministry of External Affairs and a Columnist, Mr. Pradeep Kharola IAS ( retd) former Secretary Civil Aviation Ministry as well as CMD Air India, and Mr. Navin Berry Chief Editor, Destination India Magazine and CEO BITB Conclave on the various issues raised in the book. The issues of connectivity by air to places where we have foreign policy interests, how to divert our fast-growing international outbound and opening Andaman and the Nicobar Islands as part of our soft power the projection for high-value low volume tourism were discussed.
The book is available on Amazon
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