By IANS
New Delhi : An information gap exists between India and Russia that is not in keeping with the rapid changes taking place in both countries, said Russian Prime Minister Victor Zukov.
At the inauguration of the Russian Information Centre here Wednesday, the Russian prime minister felt there was an urgent need to address this “information hunger”.
“At the negotiations yesterday (with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh), we have noted repeatedly that our two societies are not getting enough information on each other’s life, and the present customary mode of getting news from each other does not correspond with the rhythm of rapid development of our two nations,” he said.
“One should not ignore the acute interest of our two nations in each other. They both want to know what are the daily concerns of their old friends, what problems they are facing,” added Zubkov.
He hoped that the new Russia Information Centre would soon acquire a “firm status of the main venue of communication of our two nations”. The inauguration of the Centre was the last event in his two-day visit to India.
An interesting sociological study conducted by the Russian Centre for International Projects, along with an Indian research organisation, found that 62 percent of over 4,100 Indians surveyed had a positive image of Russia.
But, there has been a decrease in information about Russia in the last 15 years, following the break-up of the Soviet Union, which has led to a whole new generation growing up without access to Russian sources of information, art and culture.
In fact, Russia is today now known only through two of its illustrious sons and daughters. According to the survey, over 60 percent of Indians surveyed identified President Vladimir Putin with Russia, and 25 percent more named tennis player Maria Sharapova.