The Prime Minister will be attending the dual summits of the Brazil-Russia-India-China (BRIC) grouping and the six-nation Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in Yekaterinburg.
After Jawaharlal Nehru, Manmohan Singh will be the second Indian Prime Minister
to visit the 276-year-old Russian city of Yekaterinburg in Ural Mountains from where emeralds were sourced for decorating Taj Mahal.
The Prime Minister will be attending the dual summits of the Brazil-Russia-India-China (BRIC) grouping and the six-nation Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in Yekaterinburg, on the border between Europe and Asia, on Tuesday.
During his visit to the ex-USSR in 1955 as the first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru and his daughter and future prime minister Indira Gandhi had visited this industrial town,
world famous for heavy engineering plant 'Uralmash'.
According to local historian Olga Bukharkina, Nehru had shown great interest in 'Uralmash' plant, which later supplied equipment for the Bhilai Steel Plant and other industrial enterprises, built in India with the Soviet assistance.
'Uralmash' has also supplied some heavy equipment for the Kudankulam nuclear power plant under construction in Tamil Nadu, with the Russian know-how. Talking to PTI ahead of SCO and BRIC summit, Governor of Sverdlovsk Region Eduard Rossel said he is highly impressed by the Indian model of innovative development and knowledge-based economy. "I will push for attracting the Indian investments in hi-tech and innovative sectors," Rossel said, adding the regional authorities would provide all the possible assistance to the Indian companies willing to set up IT ventures and other hi-tech industry.
Fifty-four years ago Nehru's visit to Sverdlovsk led to the construction of India's first modern steel plant, the second visit to this town by Singh could open the reverse
trend of India helping Russia in modernising its economy.
Russia could have hardly picked a more appropriate place to host SCO and BRIC summits than Yekaterinburg, which eventually emerged as the capital of huge minerals rich Sverdlovsk Region sprawled in the Ural Mountains. The region had been an intersection for traders from the Central Asia, Indian subcontinent, China and Europe from the time immemorial.
Only a few are aware of the fact that emeralds used in the decoration of Taj Mahal had come from the Ural Mountains. The world famous Arkaim, the remains of ancient Aryan settlement discovered from the space by the Soviet cosmonauts in 1980s, is located in the neighbouring Chelyabinsk Region, proving the Ural Mountains as one of the roots of migration of Aryan ancestors of Indians and Iranians.
Closed for the foreigners in the Soviet period, Sverdlovsk region along with its mining and minerals complex is also home to the Russian defence industry, including manufacturers of the Indian Army's state-of-the-art T-90 main battle tanks - Uralwagonzavod.
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