India to impose fresh curbs on visas, universities to thwart China influence

The academicians and the business executives from China may find it difficult to travel to India as New Delhi is contemplating to tighten the visa rules for people coming in from China, as the relation between the two nations has reached a new low of late.

The visa applications of the business executives and the academicians seeking to travel from China to India are likely to go through more stringent scrutiny by the security agencies in future, sources in New Delhi said.

The move comes amid continuing military stand-off between India and China along the disputed boundary between the two neighbours in eastern Ladakh. The aggressive move by the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to unilaterally alter the status quo along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) strained the relations between the two nations.

While the Indian Army responded to the transgressions by the Chinese PLA along the de facto boundary between the two nations, New Delhi took several other measures to convey it to Beijing that the overall bilateral relations could not remain unaffected by China’s expansionist move into the territory of India.

The DH on August 4 reported that the Ministry of Human Resource Development of the Government of India would review the functioning of the Confucius Institutes and Confucius Classrooms jointly established by China and seven universities and colleges in India. The ministry will also review 54 pacts inked by Indian and Chinese higher education institutions for academic cooperation.

Besides, New Delhi on June 29 banned 59 apps linked to China, alleging that they were used in activities “prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, the security of the state and public order”. The government on July 28 banned use of 47 more apps – mostly the clones and the different versions of the previously banned ones.

New Delhi of late also decided to bar China’s companies from participating in highway construction projects in India. The Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) and the Mahanagar Telecom Nigam Limited (MTNL) of late cancelled tender inviting bids from companies for supply of equipment for upgrading its network to 4G – a move, which is apparently aimed at keeping away Huawei Technologies Company and ZTE Corporation of China away from the project and stopping them from expanding footprints in the telecom sector of India.

The Modi Government also moved to restrict entities of China from participating in commercial coal auctions in India, implementing a revision in foreign investment policy introduced in April – just days before the military stand-off between the two nations came to the public domain.