India’s pavilion gets ready for Expo 2020

ROSHIN GEORGE

India’s pavilion at Expo 2020 – which will take place from October 1, 2021 to March 31, 2022 after COVID-19 forced its postponement by a year – is getting ready. During his visit to the UAE in the last week of November, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar visited the pavilion along with India’s Ambassador Pavan Kapoor and Consul-General of India in Dubai Dr Aman Puri.

Located in Opportunity District at the Expo 2020 site, the project will have two buildings of ground plus three storeys in a total area of 4800 sq feet. A larger-than-life statue of Father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi stands at the entrance along with a replica of a sun-dial. Of the two buildings, the Plaza will showcase retail exhibits and the Pavilion will include art, culture, entertainment, renewable energy, health, education, food court, and space programme. While the former will be dismantled, the latter will be a permanent India centre after Expo 2020.

The theme is “Future is in India” and the Pavilion will show the face of an India rising on the three pillars of opportunity, sustainability and mobility – a nation ready to lead the world’s future. Highlighting the country’s growth story from Harappan civilisation to modern India, the pavilion will take visitors on a journey through its 5000-year history.

The India Pavilion will be a place that will define the country’s potential to become a global power through its ‘Five Ts’ – Talent, Trade, Tradition, Tourism and Technology, according to the website of Expo 2020. Building on India’s culture, heritage and technologies, including its space programme, the Pavilion will reflect ‘new India’ and show the strengths of its human resources and youth’s aspirations.

Piyush Goyal, Minister for Commerce and Industry and Railways, had unveiled the theme and design of the India Pavilion in August 2019.

The project is estimated to cost AED 250 million. Several leading businessmen from the Indian diaspora in the UAE such as Lulu Group Chairman M.A. Yusuf Ali and Aster Healthcare Chairman Dr Azad Moopen had pledged a substantial percentage of the total cost towards the construction of the India Pavilion. India has a 3.3 million-strong diaspora in the UAE.

The first World Expo in the Middle East-Africa-South Asia region, Expo 2020 will have over 190 participating countries and will run seven days a week from 10 am to 12 midnight on weekdays and until 2 am on weekends. Ticket prices are yet to be announced, while people with special needs and disabilities will gain free entry.

District 2020, as the expo site will be known in future, will be a sustainable city and 80 per cent of the structures will find new life after the six-month extravaganza.