SoCultures Magazine 2018 SoCultures Magazine Jan-Feb 2019 | Page 13

India and Indonesia Come Together in the Indo-Pacific. What will it take for India’s relationship with Indonesia to progress to the next level? INDIA AND INDONESIA Apart from security-defence point of view, it’s important in business connectivity too.  In Aceh when the tide is low, one can even see Andaman Nicobar island. Now, Andaman and Aceh are connected via sea-route. The potential of business connectivity between Aceh, Sumatera islands and Andaman and Nicobar Islands extend immense opportunities for economic cooperation that can be developed in tourism, cruise tourism and eco- tourism; air/ sea transport connectivity and transportation to facilitate trade between the two sides. Definitely it will strengthen the relationships. What can we do to empower the youth population of our countries? Especially in areas like sports, education, cultures?  We have various educational cultural exchange programmes, Darmasiswa scholarship is a one year non-degree program offered by the Indonesian government to all foreign students especially to study Indonesian language, arts, music, crafts etc   https://www.kemlu.go.id/newdelhi/en/Pages/scholarships-in- Indonesia.aspx IACS, The Indonesian Arts and Culture Scholarship has been conducted since 2003 and till 2018, the scholarship has been awarded to 843 alumni from 74 countries. https://www.kemlu.go.id/en/berita/Pages/2019-Indonesian-Arts-and- Culture-Scholarship.aspx 13 SOCULTURES JAN-FEB 2019