INDIA-KOREA - Asia-Pacific Business and Technology Report

Guards of emperor palace at Seoul. South Korea, 2010.
India and Korea Travel and
Tourism Ties Strengthen Further
BY Jeon-Dong Hee
In the past year of 2011,
South Korea and India
have celebrated the
year of ‘Korea in India’, and
both nations are revisiting
many of the ancient,
historic cultural ties they
have shared long ago.
TRAVEL
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It is believed that it was a young Indian
princess from Ayodhya who married
a prince from Korea (Kim Suro), which
led to the eventual first establishment of
cultural, historic and finally economic exchange
between the two countries.
Eventually, with the arrival of Buddhist
monks and preachers, a bit of Indian
culture came to be engrained in Korean
culture. Again, after centuries of intrepid
trade, both countries experienced colonialism
in the modern times: India under
English rule and South Korea under Japanese
rule. It is indeed a historical coincidence
that both the countries were divided
on the same date of August 15th, into
India and Pakistan, and North and South
Korea.
In fact, Gimhae, the Korean city where
the Indian princess traveled to and married
Prince Kim Suro, is now accorded a
sister-city relationship, with the Indian
city of Faizabad-Ayodhya, according to a
Memorandum of Understanding (MoU).
Today a monument sponsored by the city
of Ayodhya’s administrations stands at
Gimhae, attracting thousands of tourists
each year.
In another MoU between Busan and
Mumbai in 1977, mutual co-operation between
the two important and commercial
capitals of the two countries was drawn
up, as were similar MOUs between Pochen
and Jaipur; Incheon and Kolkata.
Tourism and travel between the two
countries received a further boost with
the first ever visit of an Indian President
to South Korea, Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam,
when the joint committee to draw up the
Comprehensive Economic Partnership
Agreement, or CEPA, was formed. Under
the new trade agreement, bilateral trade
and commerce were given special focus.
The CEPA also aimed to lower tariff barriers
between both countries over the next
ten years, penetrating into sectors such
chemicals, garments, machinery, metals,
and tourism and travel.
The cultural ties between India and
South Korea were also strengthened admirably
due to the historic visit of the India’s
national poet and Nobel Laureate, Rabindranath
Tagore. When in Korea he had
penned the famous poem, ‘The Lamp of
the East’, which went to become a source
of hope for the Koreans who were subjugated
by Japanese imperialistic powers.
The poem’s nationalistic fervor is quoted
to this day.
In the golden age of Asia
Korea was one of its lamp bearers,
And that lamp is waiting
To be lighted once again
For the illumination of the East.
India and South Korea continue to
forge stronger ties of co-operation and understanding
across several business sectors.
Travel and tourism too are being emphasized,
considering the scope of travel
between the two nations for delivering of
services such as those related to information
technology, and also for tertiary
health care through ‘medical tourism’. A-P
Continued from Page 39
include the following:
• Daesung Energy was selected in March
2012 to work on “200kW class solar
power (heat) generation system development”.
• Hwajeong Village is the first community
in Korea to convert all of the households
into individual solar power generators
as a part of the Green Village project by
the Ministry of Knowledge Economy and
Korea Energy Management Corporation.
Collaborations
The author identifies the following
complementary collaborative areas and
stresses the need for a long term commitment
of at least 5 years for basic and applied
R&D in energy production as well as
energy storage development:
• Nanomaterial Synthesis (Korea leads)
• Nanocomposites (India leads)
• Fuelcell and Batteries (Korea leads)
• Photovoltaics (Equal?)
• Education and Trained Manpower
(India leads?)
Dr. Abdul Kalam, the former President
of India, visited the Department of Energy
Science at SKKU campus in Suwon, Korea,
in Nov. 2011. He suggested that the Indian
Space Research Organization (ISRO) can
work with SKKU and Samsung on spacebased
solar energy harvesting and energy
storage. The author feels that there are
several such areas of collaborations, especially
in nanotechnology between Korea
and India because of their complementary
strengths.
In conclusion, the increasing bonding
between Korea and India will result in
partnership that can provide global leadership
in the area of nanotechnology for
energy applications. A-P
References
1) Sivaram Arepalli, “Future of Indo-Korea
Collaborative Activities in Nanotechnology”,
Asia Pacific Business and Technology
Report, July 2010, http://www.biztechreport.com/story/588-future-indo-koreacollaborative-activities-nanotechnology
2) DST-NRF joint call for proposals, Feb.
2011; http://dst.gov.in/whats_new/whats_
new11/cop_indo_korea.pdf
3) The $10 Million Solar energy R&D
funded by DST; http://www.dst.gov.in/
scientific-programme/t-d-solar-energy.
htm
4) “India’s Nano Mission” in Chap. 7 of
DST’s annual report http://www.dst.gov.
in/about_us/ar10-11/default.htm
5) The WCU program: http://wcu.nrf.go.kr/
english/e_wcu/wcu_6.jsp
6) Daesung Energy website: http://energy.
korea.com/
Continued from Page 44
to meet surging energy needs is a positive
sign for South Korea.
He said that South Korea should be aware
of the growing power of private entities in
India. “Reliance Energy, Tata Power, and
Larson & Toubro are companies that have
been eyeing the nuclear sector following
the US-India civil nuclear deal. Therefore,
Korea needs to seek exchanges and technology
cooperation with these companies.”
It’s still early on in terms of India’s ambitious
civilian nuclear energy program.
The local protests against the setting up of
nuclear-power plants, especially after the
Fukushima nuclear accident, are growing
louder in the country. They have put a big
question mark on many civilian nuclear energy
projects. South Korean companies will
also have to face the same protests which
can prolong the necessary waiting periods,
and they also have to cross over India’s
stringent nuclear policy hurdles. Indeed, it
will take some time for the nuclear energy
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cooperation between India and South Korea
to show results. However, India is desperate
to bridge the widening-gap between energy
demand – which is exponentially growing
– and supply. And, South Korea is seen as a
long-term reliable partner that will help India
succeed in achieving some of its nuclear
energy goals to bridge that gap.
Moreover, as a senior Indian official said
to The Hindu newspaper, having the South
Koreans in the fray means India’s other nuclear
partners have to keep the price of
their reactors competitive. A-P