Piyush Goyal holds talks with counterpart Jamieson Greer to resolve final hurdles in India-US trade deal | India News Hindustan Times
India-US open high-level trade talks to recalibrate proposed bilateral trade agreement News On AIR
For most part of the year, Gunji stays still. The bright yellow merry-go-round at the army school stays frozen and the stunted grass struggles to rear its head. At 10,500 feet above sea level, life in the Uttarakhand village can be uncertain at the best of times. So Lakshmi Gunjyal learned early on to adapt.“I tried everything to survive. I wanted to be a teacher, but when that didn’t work out, I got back to the trade our ancestors did, bringing pashmina wool from Tibet. But then, they shut the border, so I started this homestay,” says the 40-year-old, sitting in Gunji, one of the last villages in Uttarakhand’s Pithoragarh district before the Lipulekh Pass winds its way into Tibet.But now, she is hopeful. The Pass is set to reopen after seven years, opening the door to a cross-border trade that is buffeted by the vagaries of geography and geopolitics. The Pass has stayed shut since 2019, first due to the pandemic and later as India-China border skirmishes led to a chill in bilateral relations.
At the trijunction of India, Nepal, and China’s Tibet Autonomous Region, the Lipulekh Pass loops its way through the snow-covered Himalayan ranges, reaching 17,000 feet at its highest point. The Pass has for centuries served as the gateway for pilgrims headed to Mount Kailash as part of the Mansarovar Yatra and Lake Manasarovar in Tibet. It’s also a historical transit point for trade between India and the Taklakot market in Tibet.
Gunji serves as a stopover for traders, sees customs checks and remains closed for 6 months in winter due to heavy snow. (Express photo by Abhinav Saha)The region is contested, with Nepal claiming Lipulekh and the larger region, including Kalapani and Limpiyadhura, based on the 1816 Treaty of Sugauli. Which is why the Pass, and the announcement earlier this year to reopen it for business, holds immense strategic value despite the low trade volumes. But for the people of Gunji, among the many sparsely populated villages downhill from the Pass, the reopening of the trade route is more sentimental — it’s a recognition of the only way of life they have known.Story continues below this ad
Lipulekh Pass, 17,000 ft For at least since the 17th century, people from these villages, and from towns downhill such as Dharchula, have trekked treacherous kilometres up to the Pass and through it, their ponies and mules laden with wares — jaggery, cereals, mill-made cotton and woollen — to be sold across the border. Once on the other side, they would pitch their tents at the Taklakot market in Tibet, stay there for six months, starting around June, as they sold their goods and collected wares to be sold in Indian markets. As the winter sets in, they return to India, this time, their ponies heavier and laden with rock salt, borax, raw wool and woollen knits. Sometimes, even sheep, goats, and horses from Tibet would make the journey back with the Indian traders. With the winter months unforgiving in Gunji and nearby villages, the traders descend further into towns such as Dharchula and beyond, where they sell the wares sourced from Tibet.
The road from Dharchula winds its way up to Gunji. (Express photo by Abhinav Saha)The trade operates outside the logic of modern commerce and is a mix of cash, barter and credit. Trade between the two regions was first suspended during the 1962 war with China, and reopened only in 1992. Since then, every diplomatic chill would be accompanied by uncertainty and fears that it would impact trade.Story continues below this ad But as India and China worked to mend their relationship, in 2025, the government opened the route for the Mansarovar Yatra and earlier this year, announced the reopening of the Lipulekh Pass for trade.
Before 2019, when the Pass was last shut, pilgrims and traders would have to trek up 27 km from Gunji to reach the border post and onwards to the Pass, before crossing over to the other side. But with a new road coming up on the Indian side last year, vehicles can now reach
Piyush Goyal holds talks with counterpart Jamieson Greer to resolve final hurdles in India-US trade deal | India News Hindustan Times
India, U.S. Plan Multiple Meetings to Advance Trade Agreement INDIA New England News
Discussion (0)