General Studies Paper 2

Context

• By presenting itself as a more participative and less exploitative alternative, India can make its ties with Africa a win-win ecosystem for the 21st century.

About

• Like an absentee landlord, Africa is flagging its demands nowadays on multilateral fora such as BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), the G-20 and the United Nations General Assembly.
• For a continent with 54 countries, over a quarter of the “Global South”, it is populated at BRICS and the G-20 by South Africa, an atypical representative of the Black continent.

Challenges and disruptors

• Africa, in general, and the Sahel region in particular, are passing through several existential challenges such as misgovernance, unplanned development, the dominance of ruling tribes and corruption.
• Recently, new disruptors such as the Islamic terror, inter-tribal scrimmage, changing climate, runaway food inflation, urbanisation and youth unemployment have further strained the traditional socio-political fabric.
• As the past military interventions by France, the United States and Russia’s Wagner Group to curb the militancy have shown, they frequently become part of the problem.
• These interventions have costs: keeping dictatorships in power to protect their economic interests, such as uranium in Niger, gold in the Central African Republic and oil in Libya.
• Africa’s problems are further compounded by an erosion in its international support base. China has been Africa’s largest trading partner and investor, but a slowing economy and trade have reduced its appetite for Africa’s commodities.
• Its Belt and Roads Initiative has raised the debts of some African countries to unsustainable levels, in turn causing them to cede control of some of their assets to China.
• France, the United Kingdom and other colonial powers as well as the United States have continued to exploit mineral wealth in Africa, but their economic downturn has limited their outreach.

India’s robust ties

• India’s ties with Africa are deep, diverse and harmonious that range from Mahatma Gandhi’s satyagraha against the apartheid to the UN peacekeeping role.
• Although we now import less oil from Africa and sell fewer agricultural products, India-Africa trade reached $98 billion in 2022-23.
• India’s investment and other socio-economic engagements with Africa remain robust, especially in such sectors as education, health care, telecom, IT, appropriate technology and agriculture.
• India was the fifth largest investor in Africa and has extended over $12.37 billion in concessional loans.
• India has completed 197 projects and has provided 42,000 scholarships since 2015.
• Approximately three million people of Indian origin live in Africa, many for centuries. They are Africa’s largest non-native ethnicity.
• India is well placed to leverage its comprehensive profile with Africa to help the continent either bilaterally or through these multilateral forums.
• Its hosting of the G-20 Summit will present it with a historic opportunity to up the ante. It could consult like-minded G-20 partners and multilateral institutions for a comprehensive semi-permanent platform to resolve the stalemated security and socio-economic situations in several parts of Africa.

Way forward

• India should deliver political stability and economic development by combining peacekeeping with socio-political institution building.
• We can offer force multipliers such as targeted investments and transfer of relevant and appropriate Indian innovations, such as the JAM trinity (Jan Dhan-Aadhaar-Mobile), DBT (Direct Benefit Transfer), UPI (Unified Payments Interface), and Aspirational Districts Programme.
• By offering a more participative and less exploitative alternative, New Delhi can make the India-Africa ecosystem an exemplary win-win paradigm for the 21st century.