‘Nobody knows’: Trump won’t say whether he will move forward with US strikes on Iran

NEW DELHI: Indian entrepreneurs are increasingly looking to expand into the Middle East as small businesses in India seek to make the most of their strong growth trajectory. 

The country boasts around 63 million micro, small and medium enterprises, up from 47.7 million in July 2024, latest government data shows. The sector contributes to some 30 percent of India’s GDP and 45 percent of its exports. 

Amid the boom, Indian entrepreneurs seeking to scale up their businesses are now eyeing collaborations across various sectors with their counterparts in the Middle East. 

“We are working with, at present, with … Bahrain, you know, Qatar, UAE, Saudi Arabia, by attending various exhibitions, fairs organized by these countries. We are taking world-class Indian MSME delegations to these countries, hundreds of MSMEs, for (business) matchmaking,” Vijay Kumar, director general of the World Association for Small and Medium Enterprises, told Arab News at the 2025 MSME Day in New Delhi. 

He added he was particularly optimistic about the potential for growth for Indian businesses and their counterparts in Saudi Arabia, saying that they were already collaborating.

"(The) future is very good for Saudi MSMEs and Indian MSMEs,” he said. “I’m sure in the coming years not only things will be multiplied … (but) thousands of Saudi MSMEs and Indian MSMEs (will) start (feeling the) benefits and become the global partner(s) for export and providing employment to their own countries.” 

The rising interest toward the Middle East is due to the region’s business landscape and its wealth of opportunities, according to Naveen Sharma, chairman of Athena Ventures. 

“The reason for Indian MSMEs’ expansion is that nowadays Indian MSMEs are doing very well. They are now flushed with funds, they have the right technology, they have good processes. So they are very keen to expand, and (the) Middle East is a very fertile business environment in which Indian MSMEs can really flourish,” he told Arab News. 

“Already many of them have invested there, and as you may be knowing because of the free trade agreements, because of the liberal trade policies, liberal tax policies, many Indian MSMEs are also making Gulf countries their hubs for billing and logistics, all those things.” 

The government has described small and medium businesses as the “backbone” of the Indian economy and a key pillar of growth as the sector has emerged as the second-largest employer in the country after agriculture, generating more than 281 million jobs. 

Rimjhim Saikia, an entrepreneur and WASME’s joint director, said small and medium enterprises were contributing to transform India into a developed nation. 

“We are progressing towards that and a big role is being played by the MSMEs,” Saikia told Arab News. 

She said she had witnessed more engagements between India and the Middle East in her sector, adding that there was “a lot of scope for Indian MSMEs to join hands” with their counterparts from the region. 

“This is the right time, I would say, for Indian SMEs to actually look towards the Middle East,” she said.

Many small and medium businesses are collaborating with Middle Eastern countries in prominent sectors, including hospitality, pharmaceuticals and textiles. 

Having brought over two dozen Indian entrepreneurs to Saudi Arabia herself last September, she said the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 transformation project in particular held massive potential. 

“(The) 2030 vision is very important for Saudi, but that also holds a lot of importance for Indian MSMEs because, with the Vision 2030 opens up a plethora of opportunities … both in the manufacturing and the trading sector,” she added.

“I think for everyone, every MSME, there is a lot of hope for a very good … future in the Middle East, particularly in Saudi (Arabia) for expanding their business.” 

NEW DELHI: India has deported without trial to Bangladesh hundreds of people, officials from both sides said, drawing condemnation from activists and lawyers who call the recent expulsions illegal and based on ethnic profiling.

New Delhi says the people deported are undocumented migrants.

The Hindu nationalist government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has long taken a hard-line stance on immigration — particularly those from neighboring Muslim-majority Bangladesh — with top officials referring to them as “termites” and “infiltrators.”

It has also sparked fear among India’s estimated 200 million Muslims, especially among speakers of Bengali, a widely spoken language in both eastern India and Bangladesh.

“Muslims, particularly from the eastern part of the country, are terrified,” said veteran Indian rights activist Harsh Mander.

“You have thrown millions into this existential fear.”

Bangladesh, largely encircled by land by India, has seen relations with New Delhi turn icy since a mass uprising in 2024 toppled Dhaka’s government, a former friend of India.

But India also ramped up operations against migrants after a wider security crackdown in the wake of an attack in the west — the April 22 killing of 26 people, mainly Hindu tourists, in Indian-administered Kashmir.

New Delhi blamed that attack on Pakistan, claims Islamabad rejected, with arguments culminating in a four-day conflict that left more than 70 dead.

Indian authorities launched an unprecedented countrywide security drive that has seen many thousands detained — and many of them eventually pushed across the border to Bangladesh at gunpoint.

Rahima Begum, from India’s eastern Assam state, said police detained her for several days in late May before taking her to the Bangladesh frontier.

She said she and her family had spent their life in India.

“I have lived all my life here — my parents, my grandparents, they are all from here,” she said. “I don’t know why they would do this to me.”

Indian police took Begum, along with five other people, all Muslims, and forced them into swampland in the dark.

“They showed us a village in the distance and told us to crawl there,” she told AFP.

“They said: ‘Do not dare to stand and walk, or we will shoot you.’“

Bangladeshi locals who found the group then handed them to border police who “thrashed” them and ordered they return to India, Begum said.

“As we approached the border, there was firing from the other side,” said the 50-year-old.

“We thought: ‘This is the end. We are all going to die.’“

She survived, and, a week after she was first picked up, she was dropped back home in Assam with a warning to keep quiet.

Rights activists and lawyers criticized India’s drive as “lawless.”

“You cannot deport people unless there is a country to accept them,” said New Delhi-based civil rights lawyer Sanjay Hegde.

Indian law does not allow for people to be deported without due process, he added.

Bangladesh has said India has pushed more than 1,600 people across its border since May.

Indian media suggests the number could be as high as 2,500.

The Bangladesh Border Guards said it has sent back 100 of those pushed across — because they were Indian citizens.

India has been accused of forcibly deporting Muslim Rohingya refugees from Myanmar, with navy ships dropping them off the coast of the war-torn nation.

Many of those targeted in the campaign are low-wage laborers in states governed by Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), according to rights activists.

Indian authorities did not respond to questions about the number of people detained and deported.

But Assam state’s chief minister has said that more than 300 people have been deported to Bangladesh.

Separately, Gujarat’s police chief said more than 6,500 people have been rounded up in the western state, home to both Modi and interior minister Amit Shah.

Many of those were reported to be Bengali-speaking Indians and later released.

“People of Muslim identity who happen to be Bengali speaking are being targeted as part of an ideological hate campaign,” said Mander, the activist.

Nazimuddin Mondal, a 35-year-old mason, said he was picked up by police in the financial hub of Mumbai, flown on a military aircraft to the border state of Tripura and pushed into Bangladesh.

He managed to cross back, and is now back in India’s West Bengal state, where he said he was born.

“The Indian security forces beat us with batons when we insisted we were Indians,” said Mondal, adding he is now scared to even go out to seek work.

“I showed them my government-issued ID, but they just would not listen.”