A card that never flashed

October 04, 2016 11:48 pm | Updated November 09, 2021 01:57 am IST - New Delhi

India’s frosty relations with Pakistan have caused a setback to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ambitious Make in India project.

India had decided to roll out a “business card” for eminent businessmen from the eight South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) countries, allowing them seamless travel across the region.

The Uri attack has pushed the project to the back burner.

India had printed 5,000 high-security cards and received nearly 2,500 applications. Home Ministry officials refused to reveal how many were from Pakistan.

Home Minister Rajnath Singh announced during his Islamabad visit on August 3 and 4 that the “business card” was being rolled out immediately. The plan was to operationalise the cards during the now cancelled SAARC summit in Islamabad in November.

The Home Ministry is in a fix now. “The cards were printed after several rounds of negotiations among the security agencies and have enhanced security features. It had initially hit a design hurdle, with agencies differing on the security features, pushing up the cost of the project,” a senior Home Ministry official said.

Since Pakistan is a part of the grouping, intelligence agencies had expressed apprehensions about easing visa restrictions for businessmen from that country.

But the government decided to implement it to bring normality in the region.

Passport details “The card was only meant for eminent businessmen of the SAARC countries and would have to be carried with the passport. It has all the passport details as well as the travel history of the businessmen,” said the official. The cards were offered to facilitate trade and commerce among the SAARC nations and promote business interests in India.

“The fate of the cards is not known, but if the project is scrapped we will reuse it for some other purpose,” said the official.

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