India-Oman Archival Cooperation

Context

Recently a delegation of the National Archives of India (NAI), visited the National Records and Archives Authority (NRAA) of Oman to explore the areas of bilateral cooperation in the archival field.

What are Archives?

• Archives are the valuable documentary historical past of any nation and as the surest archival organization inside the country.
• The National Archives of India performs a key position in guiding and shaping the improvement of archival recognition both on the national and state level. 

India-Oman Relation

• Economic Cooperation: India is amongst Oman’s pinnacle trading partners. Bilateral trade in 2022-23 stood at around $12.3 billion between both the countries.
• India is the 2d biggest market for Oman’s crude oil exports for the year 2022 after China. 
• India is also the 4th largest market for Oman’s non-oil exports for the 12 months 2022 and 2nd largest source of its import after UAE. 
• Defense Cooperation: India and Oman conduct normal biennial bilateral exercise events among all three services.
  • Army exercise: Al Najah
  • Air Force exercise: Eastern Bridge
  • Naval Exercise: Naseem Al Bahr
• Indian Diaspora: There are approximately 7,00,000 Indians in Oman, of which approximately 5,67,000 are workers and specialists.
• There are Indian families living in Oman for more than 152 years. 
• Maritime Cooperation: Oman is on the gateway of Strait of Hormuz through which India imports one-5th of its oil imports.
  • India signed a MoU with the country in 2018 to get entry to the Duqm port of Oman.

Agreements between India and Oman

• In 2022, the Central Bank of Oman (CBO) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) to link the value systems between the two nations. 
• Another MOU between Oman News Agency and Asia News International was signed. The MOU enables the change of information and data between each country.

Way Ahead

• Oman is a key pillar to India’s West Asia Policy. The strategic vicinity of Oman inside the Gulf region and India’s emergence as an international player similarly decorate the significance in their relation.
• By building on their historical ties and adapting to the converting international landscape, India and Oman can preserve to contribute to local stability and prosperity.

National Archives of India (NAI)

• NAI was established in 1891, at Calcutta as the Imperial Record Department in British India. Later it was shifted to Delhi.
• Governance: It is under the administrative control of the Ministry of Culture. 
• NAI is the most important archival repository in South Asia. It has a widespread corpus of facts viz., public information, personal papers, oriental records, cartographic records and microfilms etc.
• The Functions of the NAI are as follows:
  • The NAI is the custodian of all non-modern government statistics, preserving them for the usage of directors and students.
  • It maintains and conserves data of the government and its agencies most effectively, and does not get hold of classified files.
• As per the Public Records Act, 1993, diverse significant ministries and departments are purported to switch statistics more than 25 years old to the NAI, except they pertain to labeled records.

Source: The Hindu

UPSC Prelims Practice Question:

Q.Which of the following is not a member of ‘Gulf Cooperation Council’? (2016)

Select the correct answer using the codes given below:

a. Iran

b. Saudi Arabia

c. Oman

c. Kuwait

Ans: “a”India-Oman Archival Cooperation

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