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Correspondent

21 August 2024 at 3:50:16 pm

Paper Towers

The collapse of the Delhi hostel which has left six people dead and several more injured brings into sharp relief the dangerous disconnect between what is sanctioned and what is actually built in Indian cities. The structure was reportedly sanctioned only up to ground-plus-one, yet had grown to five storeys and was being used as a densely occupied student hostel. While the investigation will establish whether the basement alterations, weakened pillars, waterlogging or some other structural...

Paper Towers

The collapse of the Delhi hostel which has left six people dead and several more injured brings into sharp relief the dangerous disconnect between what is sanctioned and what is actually built in Indian cities. The structure was reportedly sanctioned only up to ground-plus-one, yet had grown to five storeys and was being used as a densely occupied student hostel. While the investigation will establish whether the basement alterations, weakened pillars, waterlogging or some other structural failure caused the building to give way, the circumstances already raise a more uncomfortable question: how does a building apparently approved for two floors become a five-storey hostel without the system noticing? Delhi’s student neighbourhoods have developed a voracious market for cheap accommodation, and where demand rises faster than regulated housing, buildings acquire floors, rooms and tenants with remarkable speed. A residential property becomes a paying guest facility; a basement becomes usable space; another floor appears; more beds are squeezed in. The paperwork, if it exists at all, struggles to keep pace with the construction. There is no reason to assume that this is uniquely Delhi’s problem. Pune’s student districts, Bengaluru’s rental corridors, Mumbai’s crowded suburbs and other education and employment hubs face the same pressures. Wherever land is scarce, rents are high and demand for accommodation is relentless, the temptation to build beyond what was sanctioned is immense. The danger is obvious. A building designed for one purpose and a particular structural load cannot indefinitely be treated as a piece of elastic real estate. Adding floors, altering columns, excavating beneath an existing structure or cramming dozens of occupants into a building designed for far fewer people is not renovation. It is gambling with lives. Yet India’s municipal systems too often seem to discover illegal construction only after something has collapsed. The response is then predictable: an FIR, inspections, sealing drives and promises that officials found negligent will be punished. Delhi has already ordered inspections of nearby paying guest accommodations and buildings with fifth floors. Such action is welcome. It is also painfully late. The real test is not how efficiently the authorities clear the rubble. It is whether they can prevent the next building from becoming rubble. The country needs more than inspection drives. It needs municipal bodies capable of knowing what is being built in their jurisdictions, enforcing sanctioned plans before violations become permanent and making officials answerable when obvious breaches are ignored. A city’s housing shortage cannot be solved by allowing unsafe buildings to multiply. Nor can affordable accommodation be secured by making students the unwitting occupants of structural experiments. Satya Niketan has exposed a dangerous gap between the buildings cities need and the buildings their regulations can safely accommodate. If that gap is not closed, the next collapse may simply have a different pin code.

A Flemish Foothold

Belgium’s place at the heart of Europe is giving India a new opening into the continent’s trade, technology and defence networks.

Despite not being a great power nor having France’s military weight nor Germany’s industrial heft, few countries of the size of Belgium occupy such a consequential patch of the geopolitical map. Wedged between France, Germany, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, and sitting on the North Sea, Belgium is close to the principal political, economic and military centres of western Europe. Brussels hosts the principal institutions of the European Union and the headquarters of NATO.


Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever’s visit to India from September 2 to 4, his first since taking office in February 2025, marked more than a routine diplomatic engagement. The two countries have used the visit to widen a relationship traditionally dominated by diamonds and commerce into one encompassing defence, critical minerals, semiconductors, clean energy, technology and security.


The old India-Belgium relationship was commercially valuable but strategically underdeveloped. The new one has the potential to be both.


Diamonds to Defence

Diamonds remain an important link. Antwerp has long been a major global centre for the diamond trade, while Indian companies and craftsmen occupy a substantial place in its processing ecosystem. But neither country can afford to define the relationship through diamonds alone.


The most interesting shift is towards defence. India and Belgium signed a Letter of Intent establishing a framework for regular military exchanges, staff talks, education and training, research and defence-industrial partnerships. The two sides also welcomed a series of agreements between Indian and Belgian defence companies covering areas such as robotics, ammunition, electro-optics and other technologies. Belgium will appoint a defence attaché in New Delhi, while India plans to post a resident defence attaché in Brussels.


Belgium possesses specialised industrial capabilities that can complement India’s increasingly ambitious defence-manufacturing ecosystem. For India, cooperation with European firms can mean access to niche technologies; for Belgium, India offers a large market and an increasingly capable manufacturing partner.


Maritime security offers another natural area for cooperation. Belgium’s naval presence is modest, but its location and membership of NATO give it an importance disproportionate to its fleet. The planned visit of the Belgian frigate Leopold I to India in November is a small but useful illustration of how the relationship is acquiring a maritime dimension.


The economic relationship already has substance. Bilateral trade exceeded $13 billion in 2025-26, making the original source’s figure of $1.3 billion a considerable understatement. The two governments have now set themselves the more ambitious objective of doubling bilateral trade over the next five years.


The timing is perfect as India and the European Union concluded negotiations for a free-trade agreement in January this year.  Belgium can be one of India’s entry points into that market. Its strengths in logistics, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, engineering and advanced manufacturing complement India’s expanding industrial and services capabilities. The newly established Investment Fast-Track Mechanism should also make it easier for Belgian companies to navigate the Indian market.


The technology opportunity

The next phase should move beyond traditional commerce.


Semiconductors, artificial intelligence, critical minerals, renewable energy and green hydrogen are precisely the sectors in which India is seeking international partnerships while reducing strategic dependence on concentrated supply chains. Belgium, with its advanced research and industrial base, can be a useful partner.


Talent is equally important. India has a large pool of technically trained manpower; Belgium has universities, research institutions and companies operating at the technological frontier. Mobility and research partnerships can therefore become an economic asset rather than simply a migration issue.


Security Ties

Security cooperation is another emerging pillar. India and Belgium have agreed to strengthen cooperation against transnational organised crime and cybercrime. The two governments are also exploring a joint working group on counter-terrorism.

The significance of all this lies in the breadth of the relationship. India is no longer approaching Belgium merely as a trading partner. Belgium, for its part, is beginning to see India not simply as a large market but as a strategic and technological partner.


That makes Brussels an increasingly useful address for New Delhi. India needs reliable partnerships across Europe CUTTING ACROSS commercial, technological, military and diplomatic. Belgium, sitting at the intersection of the continent’s major institutions and markets, is unusually well placed to provide one.


(The writer is a foreign affairs expert. Views personal.)

 

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