Under air bubble agreement, Indians with any valid VISA can fly to US, UK and Canada

Indians holding any kind of visa valid under the ‘Air Bubbles’ agreement can travel to the UK, USA, Canada and the UAE, according to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation. This comes after the earlier rule of the European Union that only those holding essential visa were allowed for travel abroad.

What is Air Bubble Agreement?

It refers to a bilateral agreement that India has signed or in the process of finalizing with specific countries to allow their national carriers to ferry passengers back and forth from India. This is besides the Indian operators. India has negotiated this agreement with the US, France and Germany apart from now Canada and the UAE. Under this agreement, all these countries are operating flights to and fro from our country.

What is the situation for India?

The Home Ministry of the country has not given permission to the air travellers to travel to India holding any visa. Rather, they can only come to India if they are holding an essential visa, unlike the arrangement for the other countries for Indian travellers.

Vande Bharat Mission

This was launched by the government in order to ensure the safe return of the Indians stuck abroad amid the COVID 19 outbreak all over the world. This is also the biggest evacuation exercise to bring back Indian citizens from any other countries since the evacuation of 1.77 lakh people from the Gulf region in the early 1990s at the start of hostilities between Iraq and Kuwait. This mission focuses on Indian citizens with a compelling reason to return.

Month: Current Affairs - August, 2020