The beauty and joy of gifting

Foreign aid by countries, whether commercial or non‐commercial, tied or untied, serves as an instrument that furthers the donor's national interests.

Several components in India's Covid‐19 diplomacy can be classified as gifts, at the Global Vaccine Summit in 2020, India pledged $15 million to the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization. India also initiated efforts to set up a SAARC Emergency Fund, to which it made a contribution $10 million, the largest contribution of all member-countries. It also contributed $2 million to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, which was close to 20% of the total amount pledged for the next 2 years. In 2020, India announced a $2 million contribution to the International Solar Alliance programme to support the deployment of solar power in health centres in 46 Small Island Developing States and Least Developed Countries. Further, India donated food supplies to countries in the immediate neighbourhood. As part of Mission Security and Growth for All in the Region, the Indian Naval Ship Kesari delivered 580 tonnes of food to the Maldives. India also dispatched two separate consignments of food aid to Afghanistan, containing donations of approximately 5,000 tonnes and 10,000 tonnes of wheat, respectively, of a total pledged donation of 75,000 metric tonnes.

Several capacity‐building initiatives were sponsored by the Government of India. In the initial stages of the pandemic, India dispatched 15 doctors to Kuwait and 14 paramedics to the Maldives. The government also extended to partner countries several virtual Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation courses on Covid‐19 prevention and management. A delegation of 88 nurses, affiliated with the Aster DM Healthcare group of private hospitals in Kerala, Karnataka and Maharashtra, was sent to the United Arab Emirates, although this was not funded by the government. India also supplied hydroxychloroquine to a large number of countries around the world.

In March 2021, the second wave hit an unprepared India and emergency relief aid began to pour into India from a number of countries in both the Global North and South. The United States, several European countries, Japan and Australia sent supplies and monetary aid (Chakraborty, 2021), while southern developmental partners such as Iran, Kenya, Ghana, Mongolia, Oman, Bahrain, Mauritius, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Egypt sent oxygen concentrators, cylinders, ventilators, medicines and gifts of foodstuff. These donations were met with reactions of embarrassment in many quarters. The social media was visibly irritated with India receiving emergency humanitarian aid. One reason for such a strong reaction was India's image, as an emerging global power that does not receive aid. Being an aid recipient is popularly associated with an inability to care for one's own population without outside assistance, and India had, as long ago as in 2004, declared that it would stop accepting disaster relief aid. Another reason was that India had received donations from many of its southern developmental partners, who had long been recipients of India's development cooperation programmes.

Receiving gifts, though originally welcome, can, on occasion, cause embarrassment. I was in the IAS when I got married. As is the custom, a large number of gifts were received, in cash and kind, during the wedding. The marriage took place in my father-in-law Dr Gandhi's house at Ramachandrapuram in East Godavari district in Andhra Pradesh state. He had already established a considerable name for himself as a humanitarian, and successful, medical practitioner, and most of the gifts were on expression of the goodwill he had earned over time. Still, there were a number of presents received by me from my friends and relatives. There was a clause in the conduct rules of IAS officers which fixed a ceiling on the value of gifts one could receive from various categories of people. I still remember the hassle through which we had to undergo to inventorise all the presents, and diligently make a report to the government about their value and the context in which they were received are almost wished that goodwill and affection were not available in such abundance!

The word 'gift' also has other meanings which vary with the context. For instance, when someone has a special ability to do something like, for instance, playing a musical instrument, public speaking, playing a game or vocal singing, they're supposed to have a 'gift' for that activity. Likewise, a 'gifted' child is one who is naturally endowed with a high degree of general mental ability, or displays extraordinary prowess in a specific sphere of activity or knowledge activity, it is supposed to be a gifted child.

Not all gifts are welcome. There can be such a thing as a gift given with a devious purpose, commonly known as a 'Greek gift.' There is also the related saying that one should not criticise a gift, unless one dislikes it very much, the saying being, "don't look a gift horse in the mouth." Many people possess the very valuable gift of presence, or the ability to bring their full selves to an interaction, with total focus on the people they're dealing with. And, to end this rather weighty narrative a lighter note. There are those that have the gift of absence. In other words, some people bring happiness wherever they go, while other leave happiness behind, whenever they go!

(The writer is formerly Chief Secretary, Government of Andhra Pradesh)