German Chancellor’s October visit: Govt planning Varanasi sojourn for Merkel

However, a section in the Indian establishment as well as the German government wants to take her to one of the southern India destinations — Bengaluru, Hyderabad or Chennai. “(A) Final decision is yet to be taken by the Prime Minister’s Office,” a source said.

While German government sources said that Varanasi was on the table initially and not anymore, Indian government sources said the issue of the German delegation’s visit to Varanasi is still “alive”.

In January this year, preparations were being made to take US President Barack Obama to Varanasi. However, it did not materialise, due to logistical and security reasons.

With Merkel set to visit India, India and Germany are working on ambitious outcomes on river cleaning, skills development, Make-in-India campaign, defence production, railways, renewable energy and trade and commerce.
To firm up the agenda, top German government officials will be coming to India in the next 10 days to meet Foreign Secretary S Jaishankar and key Indian officials.

The newly-appointed German Ambassador Martin Ney on Thursday said India has “enormous” investment potential for which “right conditions” have to be created.

Ney, who presented his credentials on Wednesday, said that Germany was very keen on expanding trade cooperation with India and expressed hope that both sides will be able to firm up a number of agreements during Merkel’s visit.
“The potential in this country is enormous but the investment conditions have to be right and their legal clarity; legal protection of intellectual property rights is an important element for investor to come and engage long term in India,” Ney told reporters.