Indian High Commissioner, Anup Kumar Mudgal

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"8148","attributes":{"class":"media-image wp-image-15142","typeof":"foaf:Image","style":"","width":"317","height":"278","alt":"Mauritian President of the Republic Dr Ameenah Gurib-Fakim met with the Indian President Shri Pranabh Mukherjee during her official visit to India."}}]] Mauritian President of the Republic Dr Ameenah Gurib-Fakim met with the Indian President Shri Pranabh Mukherjee during her official visit to India.

</div> Prime Minister Sir Anerood Jugnauth visited India as head of the Mauritian delegation to the IAFS-III in October 2015, highlighting the major role played by Mauritius in India’s overall engagement with Africa. He met with Prime Minister Modi in New Delhi as well as business leaders in Delhi and Mumbai. President Dr Ameenah Gurib-Fakim visited India in December 2015, and met President Pranab Mukherjee and External Affairs Minister Smt Sushma Swaraj. She also visited the city of Hyderabad. There were many other exchanges at the ministerial and senior official level that helped to take forward our cooperation in various important fields throughout the year. We had some major cultural events in 2015 as well. Outside India, perhaps the most enthusiastic and high level participation in the first International Day of Yoga (IDY) was seen in Mauritius, where there is already a deep affinity for AYUSH systems of health and wellbeing. Prime Minister Sir Anerood Jugnauth participated in the main event on 21 June at SVICC and launched a Special IDY Commemorative Cover, and President Dr Ameenah Gurib-Fakim presided over another IDY event organised in collaboration with local socio-cultural organisations. Another highlight was the Festival of India in Mauritius 2015, organised in collaboration with Ministry of Culture, Govt. of India, and the Mauritian Ministry of Arts and Culture. This provided a colourful and vibrant year-long showcase of the best of Indian art and culture in Mauritius, made all the more unique by the involvement of Mauritian artistes and performers. In recent months, Mauritius has hosted other landmark cultural and literary events such as the International Ramayana Conference, 3rd World Urdu Conference, International Regional Hindi Conference, Antarashtriya Bhojpuri Mahotsav, and International Conference on Tamil Diaspora, which brought to the fore one of the strongest links with our Diaspora: the shared pluralistic heritage of language, literature, philosophy and spirituality. We must also appreciate the important role played by Mauritius in the preservation and propagation of Hindi. As the home of the World Hindi Secretariat and the venue of the next World Hindi Conference, Mauritius leads the way in connecting the Indian Diaspora around the world through Hindi. Two Mauritian Hindi scholars were awarded the prestigious “Vishwa Hindi Samman” at the World Hindi Conference in Bhopal in 2015. This year, we are also pleased that Mauritius has been included in the list of countries whose nationals are entitled to gratis E-Tourist Visa – this means that one can obtain the e-Tourist visa sitting at home, without the need to personally visit the High Commission. What is in reserve for Year 2016 as far as bilateral relations are concerned between Mauritius and India? We hope to continue the excellent pace set in recent years in our bilateral ties in 2016, and take this unique relationship to even greater heights. We aim to further expand and diversify our economic and commercial relationships, continue our cultural exchanges through visits of artists, scholars, performers and writers, and most importantly, expand our outreach to the youth in both countries. I strongly believe that people-to-people contacts are the bedrock of our relationship, and the legacy of our ties must be passed on to the future generations, to keep it alive. Thus we would be promoting greater exchange of youth delegations in various fields such as arts, business, education and media.