Context: Recently, India handed over a symbolic cheque to the Maldivian government to begin the implementation of nine projects in the atoll nation under the High Impact Community Development Projects (HICDP).
Key points about high Impact Community Development Projects

• India and the Maldives have signed a bilateral pact on HICDPs in March 2019.
• Under the pact, a total grant of $ 5.6 million was announced for executing high-impact grant projects in the Maldives.
• The HICDPs are chosen by the Government of Maldives and are those with a high-level of community impact and participation in the areas of livelihood and income generation, health, education, gender and child empowerment, sports and sustainable development.

About Maldives

• Maldives is a small island nation in South Asia, situated in the Arabian Sea of the Indian Ocean.
• It lies southwest of Sri Lanka and India.
• It comprises the chain of 26 atolls stretches from Ihavandhippolhu Atoll in the north to Addu Atoll in the south to the equator.
• The Maldives archipelago is located on the Chagos-Laccadive Ridge, a vast submarine mountain range in the Indian Ocean.
• The Maldives is a founding member of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC).
• Malé is the capital of Maldives.