My synthesis

India and Trinidad and Tobago will share expertise in textiles with the signing of a pact on fashion technology.

Indian High Commissioner Malay Mishra said the agreement signals collaboration between India’s Institute of Fashion Technology and the University of Trinidad and Tobago’s Caribbean Academy of Fashion Designing to develop exchanges between the students, plan courses and provide faculty.

He said the Indian government has also received requests from Trinidad and Tobago in the areas of IT, healthcare, agriculture and security.

“There is also the possibility of bringing in experts in the field of renewable energy and ocean development in the future.

“Our developing a bilateral cooperation programme is based on several pillars – IT, culture, trade, education and training, agriculture, technical assistance, science and technology. These are our strengths, which we are sharing with Trinidad and Tobago,” Mishra said.

“To the people of Trinidad and Tobago, I say we all should set an example for the region by bringing greater unity and a stable society free from violence because we are in a world already tormented by so many other problems we don’t want any other disturbance,” Mishra said.

The Indian government is willing to help in the installation of a monument at Trinidad and Tobago’s Nelson Island where nearly 147,000 Indians arrived between 1845 and 1917 to work on the sugar plantations, an official said.
D.N. Srivastava, joint secretary in the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs (MOIA), Monday told a press conference: “Whatever requests come to us for both the installation of a monument at Nelson Island, and the enhancement of the systems and facilities at the Indo-Caribbean Museum would be fully considered and supported.”

The press conference was jointly organised by the Global Organization of People of Indian Origin (GOPIO) and the Indian High Commission at Gaston Court, Chaguanas.

Nelson Island was the main entry point for over 147,000 labourers who came to this country from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar between 1845 and 1917 to work on the sugar plantations and to rescue the failing agricultural capacity.

Trinidad and Tobago also houses the Indo-Caribbean Museum, the only facility in the western world to preserve the instruments, religious texts, tools, jewellery, cooking utensils of the people who migrated from India.