AQ May July 2012

Volume 52, No. 2 May-July 2012

africa Q

U

A

R

T

E

R

L

AGRICULTURE: A GREEN REVOLUTION IN AFRICA DIPLOMACY: MANAGING TRANSPARENCY SCALING THE SUMMIT: SPIRIT OF COOPERATION

Y

A F R I C A Q U A R T E R L Y

Indian Council for Cultural Relations Azad Bhavan Indraprastha Estate New Delhi — 110 002 E-mail: africa.quarterly@gmail.com Registered with the Registrar of Newspapers of India Regd No. 14380/61

I

N D I A N

C

O U N C I L

F O R

C

U L T U R A L

R

E L A T I O N S

Page2-3:page14-25 India-East Africa Relations.qxd 11/24/2012 5:07 PM Page 1

Page2-3:page14-25 India-East Africa Relations.qxd 11/24/2012 5:07 PM Page 2

africa Q

U

A

R

T

E

R

L

Y

Indian Journal of African Affairs Volume 52, No. 2, May - July 2012

INDIAN COUNCIL FOR CULTURAL RELATIONS NEW DELHI

contents

Page4-5 Contents:page14-25 India-East Africa Relations.qxd 11/24/2012 4:24 PM Page 4

4

May - July 2012

10

Need for a green revolution in Africa

24

Managing Transparency

India is poised to step up cooperation with Africa to create a green revolution in the continent, writes Dr. Suresh Kumar

With India’s development aid to African and other developing countries growing at a fast pace, there is a call to make the process more transparent — both by domestic as well as international actors.

Pranay Sinha reflects on how such transparency can be achieved

47

News ●

‘Mandela and Gandhi continue to be a source of inspiration for us’

●

No border between India and Africa

●

India reaches out to South Sudan

●

Battling the scourge of piracy

●

‘South-South cooperation is the future’

●

‘We need stronger ties with Africa’

●

A feast of music, dance at Africa Day

Page4-5 Contents:page14-25 India-East Africa Relations.qxd 11/24/2012 4:24 PM Page 5

AFRICA QUARTERLY

36

Notes for a resurgent Africa From electing the first female head of the AU Commission to taking a pledge to resolve conflict and push democracy, the 19th Summit of the African Union set a hopeful note for a resurgent continent, writes Manish Chand

SEWA: Taking women to the fore

42

India’s Self-Employed Women’s Association is working in the textiles and agro-processing sectors in Africa by partnering with local non-profit groups

+

34

In conversation

●

India’s External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna

●

Director General of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations Suresh Goel

regular features

54 62 66 76

Doing Business Books & Ideas Documents Travel

May - July 2012

5

Page6-9 edit:page14-25 India-East Africa Relations.qxd 11/24/2012 5:26 PM Page 6

Rates of Subscription Annual Three-year Subscription Subscription Rs. 100.00 Rs. 250.00 US $40.00 US $100.00 £16.0 £40.0 (Including airmail postage) Subscription rates as above payable in advance preferably by bank draft/MO in favour of Indian Council for Cultural Relations, New Delhi.

Printed and Published by Suresh K. Goel Director-General Indian Council for Cultural Relations Azad Bhavan, Indraprastha Estate New Delhi — 110002 Editor: Manish Chand ISBN 0001-9828

6

May - July 2012

The Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR), founded in 1950 to strengthen cultural ties and promote understanding between India and other countries, functions under the Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India.

As part of its effort, the Council publishes, apart from books, six periodicals in five languages — English quarterlies (Indian Horizons and Africa Quarterly), Hindi Quarterly (Gagananchal), Arabic Quarterly (Thaqafat-ul-Hind), Spanish bi-annual (Papeles de la India) and French bi-annual (Recontre Avec l’Inde).

Africa Quarterly (Indian Journal of African Affairs) is published every three months.

The views expressed in the articles included in this journal are those of the contributors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the ICCR. All rights reserved. No part of this journal may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any from or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the permission of the ICCR.

Editorial correspondence and manuscripts, including book reviews, should be addressed to: The Editor Africa Quarterly Indian Council for Cultural Relations Azad Bhavan Indraprastha Estate New Delhi-110 002 E-mail: africa.quarterly@gmail.com

Page6-9 edit:page14-25 India-East Africa Relations.qxd 11/24/2012 5:26 PM Page 7

AFRICA QUARTERLY

From the Editor's Desk

Leading and Healing Africa:

New Challenges

I

t was a tryst with destiny that stretched well past midnight in the new headquarters of the African Union building in Addis Ababa. Putting months of politicking behind, South African Home Affairs Minister Nkosozana Dlamini-Zuma, the new chairperson of the AU Commission, broke the glass ceiling by becoming the first woman head of the AU Commission on July 16. Dlamini-Zuma, who now heads the executive body which manages the day-to-day affairs of the 54-nation AU, has just the right credentials to lead the organisation at a time when the continent is battling a host of crises in Mali, the Sudans, Guinea Bissau and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

A veteran anti-apartheid activist, Dlamini-Zuma promptly signalled an end to partisan politics that plagued the leadership stalemate and underlined the new spirit of African renascence, solidarity and integration.

“My view is that I’m an African citizen. I am loyal to the African Union, and I will serve the African Union, and I’ll work collectively with every member-state,” said an upbeat Dlamini-Zuma, setting the tone for a resurgent AU leadership in the coming days.

Another cheering development that emerged from the summit was a collective endorsement by African leaders to advance democratisation of the continent and to prevent the “unconstitutional transfers of power” that often brought this vibrant continent a bad name in the international arena. UN deputy secretary-general Jan Eliasson aptly encapsulated this shift in perception. Africa is now a home of thriving democracies, where elections are peaceful and the press is free, he said.

Dlamini-Zuma’s election is part of the unfolding narrative of steady and incremental women empowerment in the African continent. The African Union, the continent’s premier decision-making body, has declared 2010-2020 as the Decade of Women, with a slew of initiatives designed to raise the profile of African women in key economic sectors and decision-making bodies. “Africa is providing leadership in the area of women’s empowerment, transforming things on the ground and opening doors for women to enter public life,” says Litha Musyimi-Ogana, the African Union’s chief pointsperson on gender issues. Clearly, there is still a long way to go, but the gender power shift is becoming increasingly manifest. In Senegal, for example, 42 percent of the legislators are women. In Rwanda, 56 percent of Parliament comprises women. In South Africa, around 40 percent legislators are women.

The AU summit in Addis Ababa also saw the Indian delegation holding bilateral talks with ministers and delegations from around two dozen African countries. Underlining India’s growing stake in the African economy and the larger resurgence of the continent, the meetings galvanised the partnership focused on trade, training and technology transfer, which remain the trinity which frames the burgeoning India-Africa engagement and the IAFS process. The discussions focused on review of the implementation of India’s pledges and commitments made by New Delhi at the India-Africa Forum Summit-I and IAFS-II and sought to fast-track the setting up of over 100 India-assisted training institutions committed at the two India-Africa Forum Summits.

China may have surged ahead in terms of trade and aid to Africa, but the Indian model of engagement has garnered much praise and credit across Africa. Jean Pierre Ezin, the AU Commissioner for education,

May - July 2012

7

Page6-9 edit:page14-25 India-East Africa Relations.qxd 11/24/2012 5:26 PM Page 8

illuminates the enduring appeal of India for the continent. “The Chinese will come and build roads, stadiums and infrastructure.... They will build labs, but who will run the labs?,” asks Ezin. “Africa needs India for developing its most precious resource: human capital,” he tells Africa Quarterly in an interview. India is a critical partner in developing Africa’s human capital, he stresses, adding that Africa is looking to India to set up higher education institutes in the continent.

If diplomacy is about transforming and touching lives of ordinary people, India’s burgeoning partnership with Africa in the sphere of agriculture and food security is bristling with possibilities. In his article, Dr. Suresh Kumar outlines a detailed exposition of how the rich experience of India’s Green Revolution can be harnessed to trigger an agricultural revolution in the continent and help it to achieve food security.

Over the last few years, riding on high annual economic growth rates and its growing global profile, India has emerged as an important donor/development partner of South countries. Building upon $7.5 billion soft loans announced at the two summits, India has been providing $1.75 billion to Africa for the last four years and will continue to do so till the 2014 summit when it is expected to provide fresh funding pledges. India’s emergence as a leading provider of soft loans to Africa is another good news story that provides a glimpse of how the blend of capital, expertise and technology can better the lives of millions of people. But this magnitude of LoCs has also triggered a debate among influential sections in India and in academic circles about the twin issues of transparency and accountability. In his article, Pranay Sinha makes a compelling argument for how India’s development aid could align with highest international transparency standards and problematic issues that need to be addressed to realise this goal. The policymakers in India are well aware of the need for transparency. In an interview to AQ, External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna says it is India’s topmost priority to provide a structural framework for dispensing aid by creating a central aid agency called the Development Partnership Administration. We believe in providing total transparency in all our operations, he says.

Moving beyond complex issues of development and realpolitick, this edition chronicles the new cultural synergy emerging between India and Africa and the inspirational story of how soccer giants of the continent have teamed up to kick malaria out of Africa. If soccer fever, which afflicts nearly every African, means emancipating Africa from this scourge, then one should pray for more power to soccer. And more power to all those who believe in Africa. As novelist and poet Ben Okri says memorably: “We all have an Africa within us. And so when the Africa outside is sick with troubles, the Africa inside us makes us ill with neuroses. The sheer quantity of neuroses, of anorexia, of inexplicable psychic illness in the world is possibly indirectly due to the illness, the troubles in Africa. We have to heal the Africa in us if we are going to be whole again.” It’s time for all of us, cutting across national boundaries, to discover the healing, redemptive Africa within us to craft a more equal and benign world order.

— Manish Chand

8

May - July 2012

Page6-9 edit:page14-25 India-East Africa Relations.qxd 11/26/2012 3:36 PM Page 9

PERSPECTIVE

‘India can harness human capital’ Africa is looking to India to set up higher education institutes in the continent, says AU’s chief pointsperson for education Jean-Pierre Ezin

T

he Chinese will come and build roads, stadiums and infrastructure.... They will build labs, but who will run the labs?,” asks Jean-Pierre Ezin, AU’s chief pointsperson for education. He pauses for a while, and then replies: “Africa needs India for developing its most precious resource: human capital.”

“The Chinese are good at building but we need skilled people to run these establishments. They are not really interested in what we really need — the transfer of knowledge,” said Ezin, AU’s Commissioner for Human Resource and Science and Technology.

India, one the other hand, Ezin points out, is strong in training and skill-building and has some of the finest educational institutions. “We need to develop skills in Africa. India is building 10 vocational educational centres at the rate of two per region. We need an acceleration of India’s efforts in this direction,” he said.

India is a critical partner in developing Africa’s human capital, he stressed, adding that Africa is looking to India to set up higher education institutes in the continent.

Ezin, who has a doctorate in mathematical science from a French university and has held key posts in international scientific research centers, is a firm believer that the so-called African renaissance or resurgence can only happen through transforming the continent’s educational landscape. “The authorities in the continent are not aware of the fact that the biggest need of Africa is human capital. They need infrastructure, roads and airports, but above all, without robust human capital, we can’t move ahead.”

It is in this sphere of education and capacity building that India can make a big difference, he said, while pointing to over 100 training institutes India has pledged to build all over the continent at the last two IndiaAfrica Forum summits held in New Delhi and Addis Ababa.

These institutions encompass a wide array of areas ranging from agriculture, rural development and food processing to information technology, vocational training, English language centres, and entrepreneurial development institutes.

The four institutions India has offered at the PanAfrican level include the Institute of Information Technology that will be established in Ghana, the Institute of Foreign Trade in Uganda, India Africa

African Union’s chief pointsperson for education Jean-Pierre Ezin.

Diamond Institute in Botswana and the Institute for Education Planning and Administration in Burundi.

These training institutes, India hopes, will help build the industrial and managerial base of the continent by spawning a new generation of entrepreneurs and an educated middle class that will shepherd African resurgence in the days to come.

India’s trade with Africa at $50 billion is nearly one third of that of China with the continent, but New Delhi has carved a niche for itself in capacity building. The training institutes distinguish India’s development-centric approach from that of China’s focus on massive infrastructure projects, hydrocarbons and mineral resources. These training institutes, together with vocational centres, Africa hopes, will help alleviate the problem of massive youth unemployment. The African youth make up 40 per cent of Africa’s population, but they account for 60 per cent of the unemployed. Around 95 million young people in sub-Saharan Africa are illiterate and are either unemployed or in low-paid jobs.

Ezin is all praise for the India-aided Pan-Africa enetwork that seeks to bring tele-education and telemedicine to African people as a sign of India’s empowering engagement with the continent.

— Manish Chand

May - July 2012

9

Page10-23 Agriculture:page14-25 India-East Africa Relations.qxd 11/24/2012 4:33 PM Page 10

AGRICULTURE

Need for a green revolution in Africa India is poised to step up cooperation with Africa to create a green revolution in the continent, writes Dr. Suresh Kumar

10

May - July 2012

Page10-23 Agriculture:page14-25 India-East Africa Relations.qxd 11/24/2012 4:33 PM Page 11

AFRICA QUARTERLY

Eastern and Southern Africa have the potential to develop cereal staples and cater to the needs of the entire region.

T

he economic recession in the world market pushed up food and energy prices in 2007-08, which had a direct effect on the livelihood of poor people in Asia and Africa. Food security is the most important target area of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) in Asia and Africa.

“Roughly three-quarters of the poor live in rural areas, where agriculture is the dominant activity. In Africa, although two-third of the labour force is engaged in agriculture, it provides them with only one-third of all income.

“As the development experience elsewhere in the

world has shown, raising agricultural productivity is key to breaking the poverty trap and alleviating hunger by improving the income (and purchasing power) of all those connected with agriculture and lowering food prices for rural and urban households alike.

“Cross-section studies by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and the World Bank staff confirm that a one percent increase in agricultural yields tends to decrease the number of poor by between 0.6 to 1 percent, and a one percent rise in agricultural income would benefit the poorest deciles of the population by raising income by an average of 2.5 percent.” (David Bigman, 2011: xxiii) It is time to encourage an enhanced understanding of how agricultural trade policies are connected to overall growth, food security and poverty alleviation objectives and strategies as well as to study the types of agricultural and food sector trade policies that would be more favourable to the various development objectives. Eastern and Southern Africa have the potential to develop cereal staples and cater to the needs of the entire region.

Agriculture is a dominant sector of the Indian economy, with nearly 65 percent of the population still relying on agriculture for employment and livelihood.

The Green Revolution transformed India from a food deficient nation to a surplus food market. In a span of three decades, India became a net exporter of food grains. Remarkable results were achieved in the dairy and oil seeds sectors through the White and Yellow revolutions respectively. The rich experience of India’s Green Revolution needs to be shared with the African countries in order to convert the latter into a Green Horizon, thus ensuring enhanced production of cereal and other agro-products in the region and boosting the agro-market, rural incomes and food security.

Indian scientific farming technologies will boost Africa’s food basket, help micro-financing institutions to grow better and encourage Indian agro-processing firms to invest in Africa and promote joint initiatives in organic farming to meet the demand of world markets.

“Recent policy discussions have emphasised the importance of the staple food crop sector in SubSaharan Africa in increasing farm productivity to achieve food security and to alleviate poverty. A critical issue in the debate is how the staple food sector can generate surpluses and how to ensure an equitable distribution of these surpluses.

“It is argued that the governance of food markets and commodity chains is a crucial element for efficiency and distributional effects, including for growth and food security — and that the chain governance itself is endogenous in an environment of weak contract

May - July 2012

11

Page10-23 Agriculture:page14-25 India-East Africa Relations.qxd 11/24/2012 4:33 PM Page 12

AGRICULTURE enforcement and imperfect markets, and importantly depends on the value in the chain and on other commodity characteristics.” (Alexander Sarris, 2010:77).

The Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) was started in Africa in the 1960s and focused on the development of the agriculture sector. For instance, cocoa production in Ghana and Ivory Coast led to neck throat competition among them and ultimately benefited the European and American markets as the demand for cocoa was very high.

The African farmers, however, failed to cater to their basic needs for survival. Nothing happened in relation to food security, despite agriculture accounting for more than 25 percent of the GDP in most African countries that have approximately 783 million hectares of arable land (27 percent of the world total) and employ more than 70 percent of the work force.

But SAP did not cater to this work force in Africa.

The neo-colonial practice was prevalent in Africa between 1950-1990 and ended with the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the Independence of South Africa.

The post-1990 globalisation has announced the arrival of developing countries such as India, China, Brazil, East-Asian countries and Africa in the international market.

A ‘cohesive development’ approach has been promoted by many developing countries, which have adopted electoral democracy and multi-party system in their regions.

India and Africa are serious about food security and are ready to change their existing land laws and practices and adopt new guidelines as per their needs. India is sharing its rich experiences in agriculture with African countries and receiving reciprocation.

The Western world looks for bonding among developing countries as a new concept of colonialism. The ‘colonialism of market economy’-cum-globalisation is different from the European colonialism of political and economic sharing or neo-colonialism of economic plunder. It is interesting to note here that both the European and American colonial masters had no role to play in this new colonialism till 1990.

Indian agriculture produces about 100 million tonnes of milk and 200-300 million tonnes of foodgrains and

scientific farming tech will boost Africa’s food basket, help micro-financing institutions and promote joint initiatives in the organic farming sector

12

May - July 2012

vegetables. Indian political leaders and industries are neither looking for a western solution to the problem of wastage of vegetables, nor re-thinking their approach to development.

It is common consensus that agriculture needs value addition in its production and India’s federal polity needs to work for economic federalism and persuade state leadership to act as execution-driven leadership.

Both the federal and state governments have taken this issue seriously. The National Council of Agriculture (NCA) of Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) is working in this direction. With a vision to create a thriving and sustainable agri-business and raise farm incomes, the NCA made a presentation to the Government on the following key policy issues: n “Effective aggregation of land through land leasing to improve availability of land, access to capital, technology and inputs to farmers. Land lease should be allowed for longer tenure (>10 years) without alienating the ownership, i.e. the farmer is fully protected against any possible loss of ownership on his land. Also Lessees should be allowed to avail the incentives available to Land owners, e.g. subsidies on drip irrigation, sprinklers and all such other benefits. n “Farmers should be given freedom to sell fresh produce to whoever they wish. Also fruits, vegetables, milk and other perishables should be de-notified from the APMC list. n “200 percent weighted deduction for Agriculture Research & Development (R&D) and Agri- Extension to incentivise and accelerate private sector investments in the agriculture sector. n “Large investment, including FDI, should be encouraged in organised retail, with strong backward integration, which will help farmers increase their income.” (Annual Review, 2012: 24-25).

It is the time to formulate a ‘Farmer-Industry Partnership’, wherein the industry should play an active role in unleashing productivity by intervening at the farmers’ market level.

The task force on Food Regulatory Affairs had extensive consultations with the industry relating to the implementation of Food Safety Standard (FSS) Rules and Regulations, and presented recommendations to the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI). CII took initiatives in this regard and initiated measures such as: n “CII, in partnership with the Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR), organised the ICAR CII Industry Meet 2011 in New Delhi in May, to strengthen linkages between the public sector and industries working in the area of research, and to disseminate information about new technologies developed by

Page10-23 Agriculture:page14-25 India-East Africa Relations.qxd 11/24/2012 4:33 PM Page 13

AFRICA QUARTERLY

n

n

n

n

n

Agriculture universities, to industry and farmers.

“An interactive session on ‘Indo-Israel Cooperation in Agriculture & Food Processing’ was held with Ms. Orit Noked, Minister of Agriculture, Israel, during her visit to New Delhi in May, to identify strengths to collaborate and share expertise.

“CII and the US Grains Council organised a brainstorming session on ‘Creating a Roadmap for Agriculture Development’ in Mumbai in May, to identify issues in procurement of grains, storage etc.

“The CII National Committee on Dairy organised the ‘International Conference on Dairy Industry – Raising Milk Productivity: Sharing Experiences’ in August in New Delhi, for sharing perspectives and identifying concrete interventions for raising productivity. Delegations from USA, France, Ireland, New Zealand and Canada, attended the conference.

“The CII National Task Force on Cold Chain Development, with the Global Cold Chain Alliance, organised an ‘Indo US Dialogue on Cold Chain Development” in New Delhi in November, to create awareness about integrated Cold Chains, and learn from US expertise.

“CII organised a series of seminars on ‘Agri Vision 2020: Partnering & Innovating for Sustainable Agriculture,’ in February and March 2012, in Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat.” (Annual Review, 2012: 25-26).

These initiatives are a timely step to deal with the Euro-dollar depression as well as to boost India’s agriculture sector towards food for all. .

India and Africa are serious about food security and are ready to change their existing land laws and practices to adopt new guidelines as per their needs.

Development in Agro-Infrastructure Sector Post IndiaAfrica Forum Summit 2011 The India-Africa Forum Summit 2011 was held when the international economic and political situation was far from favourable, particularly for developing countries.

Even as global economy is recovering from the economic crisis, fresh political upheavals are taking place.

There is a new economic growth story emerging from Africa. Africa possesses all the prerequisites to become a major growth pole of the world. India will work with Africa to realise its vast potential. India believes that a new vision is required for Africa’s devel-

Table 1: India’s Agricultural Export and Import Items to Africa ($mn) INDIA’S MAJOR IMPORT ITEMS FROM AFRICA ($ MN) Value ($ mn) 2008-09 2009-10

2010-11

Share in exports to Africa (percent) 2008-09 2009-10 2010-11

made ups etc.

513.7

471.3

592.1

3.5

3.5

2.8

Cotton yarn fabrics Sugar

188.1

0.5

363.7

1.3

0.0

1.7

Paper/wood products

204.5

205.9

327.0

1.4

1.5

1.6

Meat & preparations

277.0

243.4

440.0

1.9

1.8

2.1

INDIA’S MAJOR IMPORT ITEMS FROM AFRICA ($ MN) Fertilizer manufactured

390.7

211.0

265.7

1.6

0.8

0.8

Pulses

67.3

204.0

253.3

0.3

0.8

0.8

Crude fertilizer

355.8

275.4

249.2

1.4

1.1

0.8

Wood & wood products

247.9

236.5

198.1

1.0

0.9

0.6

Source: Directorate General of Commercial intelligence & Statistics (DGCIS), 2011-12.

May - July 2012

13

Page10-23 Agriculture:page14-25 India-East Africa Relations.qxd 11/24/2012 4:33 PM Page 14

AGRICULTURE

India’s exports to Africa have risen from $10.3 billion in 2006-07 to $21.1 billion in 2010-11, primarily due to an increase in exports of transport equipment and petroleum products.

opment and participation in global affairs.

India’s exports to Africa have risen from $10.3 billion in 2006-07 to $21.1 billion in 2010-11, primarily due to increase in exports of transport equipment and petroleum products, wherein India’s imports from Africa have more than doubled from $14.7 billion in 2006-07 to $32.3 billion in 2010-11, with the African continent now accounting for 9.1 percent share in India’s total imports.

Consequently, due to large imports from the region, India’s trade deficit with Africa has also increased to $11.2 billion in 2010-11, implying that India has become a major market for African products. Table-1 highlights India’s agriculture sector export and import items to Africa.

India’s Line of Credit (LoC) for Agricultural Development in Africa Export-Import Bank of India (EXIM Bank) has in place LoCs to enhance the agriculture sector in Africa.

Currently, 105 LoCs are earmarked for agriculture, infrastructure and related projects amounting to more than $4 billion, covering over 47 countries in the African region. Some of the beneficiaries of the LOCs are: n Angola — Railway rehabilitation project/Industrial park/Textile project/and acquisition of tractors from India; n Burkina Faso — Rural electrification/Agricultural equipment and Cyber city project; n Burundi — Hydro-electric project; n Cameroon — Plantation project; n Chad — Setting up of cotton yarn plant, plant for assembly of agricultural equipment; n Cote d’Ivoire — Project for renewal of urban transport system in Abidjan and for agricultural pro-

14

May - July 2012

jects/IT & Biotechnology park/Fisheries and coconut fibre processing plant/Electricity interconnection project; n Equatorial Guinea — potable water plant project; n Eritrea — Agricultural and educational projects; n Ethiopia — Energy transmission and distribution project Development of sugar industry; n Ghana — Rural electrification, agriculture, communication and transportation projects; n Lesotho — Export of tractors, pump sets, consultancy services and irrigation equipment; n Madagascar — Rice productivity and fertiliser production project; n Malawi — Cotton processing/irrigation & threshing plant/one-village one-project; n Mali — Rural electrification, and setting up of agro machinery and tractor assembly plant; n Mauritania — Potable water project; n Niger — Acquisition of transport equipments, transformers, motor pumps and flourmills; n Rwanda — Power projects; n Senegal — rural electrification project and fishing industry development project, irrigation project; n Sierra Leone — Procurement of tractors, harvesters and pesticides/potable water project; n Tanzania — Export of tractors, pumps and vehicles; n Zambia — Hydroelectric project/export of buses, motor vehicles, motor cycles and supply of vocational tool kits.

Source: Background Note, 2012: 71-72: emphasis mine.

“Indian Agriculture is witnessing a phase of diversification. Attention has been shifting to high-value crops from traditional crops. This is expected to enable

Page10-23 Agriculture:page14-25 India-East Africa Relations.qxd 11/24/2012 4:33 PM Page 15

AFRICA QUARTERLY a desired transition in Indian Agriculture from its stagnation to a growth path.

“The competitive advantages of Indian agriculture processes are (a) Favourable agro-climatic zones (b) Large irrigated lands (c) Gap between present productivity and potential productivity and (d) Availability of skilled, educated, technical and scientific manpower.

To leverage the global competitive advantage, Indian agriculture needs intervention in the areas of policy, technology and market access” (CII Annual Regional Meeting 2012).

Case Studies: Africa invites India for agricultural investment 1. Botswana India and Botswana started agricultural, livestock and human resources development cooperation in 1999. Maize and Paddy rice seeds have been sent to Botswana for experimentation. A project for import of Indian Buffalos to this country has also been set up.

The Farmers’ project has been finalised and since October 29, 1999, six farmers from Punjab have landed in Botswana in view of realising this project. The tender for the purchase of Indian tractors is in process.

2. Burkina Faso Burkina Faso is the second largest producer of cotton in West Africa and ranks third in the entire continent. Today, many trainees from Burkina Faso are coming to India for training in computer education, diplomacy, telecommunications, etc.

It is looking forward to set up commercial farming production units for fruits, vegetables, Arabic gum and cotton. Livestock occupies an important place in the economy of Burkina Faso in West Africa. Burkina Faso provides the following opportunities in this sector: n Small industrial units for milk processing (dairy plants) breweries. n Small industrial units for production of animal feeds. n Small industrial units of veterinary pharmaceutical products. n Meat processing. n Small units for leather. n Cattle rearing-ranching and poultry n Industrial units of manufacturing tractors. n Industrial units of manufacturing pump sets for irrigation. n Industrial units of manufacturing agro-food products. n Small Industrial units for agro-chemicals (fertilisers and pesticides).

n Industrial units of manufacturing textiles (Cotton

fabrics, garment production and yarn). n Commercial farming units (fruit, vegetables, Arabic

gum and cotton).

Burkina Faso exports cotton, animal skin, leather and cashew nuts to India and imports agro-machinery (tractors and farm implements), rice, small and medium scale industries (e.g. oil processing) from India. The country guarantees the following advantages to foreign investors: n Right of full business awareness n Right to acquire real estate, land, forested land, industrial areas in addition to concession from government. n Right to transfer capital and profits of any investor. n The advantages of investing in this country are: n A possibility of Joint Venture with Burkina Faso business community. n Low cost of labour. n Good infrastructure (telecommunication, roads, railways and airport) and services. n Strategic location in the heart of West Africa.

3. DR Congo The country is the land of opportunities and agricultural sector is one of the priority sectors. In order to access these opportunities, the Government recommends the strategies such as: Public-Private Partnership, Public-Public Partnership and PrivatePrivate Partnership in agriculture, forest and hydrographic; Re-launch of food crops: maize, rice, tomatoes, groundnuts, bananas, resumption of palm-tree exploitation (Bandundu and Equateur): Re-launch of income-generating farming: cotton, coffee, hevea, tea, cocoa, sugar cane farming, production and transportation of rough lumber (Equateur, Eastern Province, both Kasai, Bandundu, Mayumbe): Bio-fuel production from palm oil, jatropha, seaweed of the river and lakes, etc Industrial timber processing (Kinshasa, Kisangani, Kananga); Wood pulp production (Kinshasa), cattle breeding (Katanga, Kivu, Eastern Province, Bas-Congo); Pig breeding and poultry farming all over DRC, milk production (Katanga, Kivu, Eastern Province, Bas-Congo), rehabilitation of the agro-industrial Domain of N’sele (Kinshasa) and Fluvial, sea and lake fishing.

DRC has a tremendous potential in food crops as well as in manoic, maize, rice, groundnut, plantain, potato, yam, wheat, sorghum, bean, soya beans, tarot and sweet potato.

The income-generating farming prefers fibre,

May - July 2012

15

Page10-23 Agriculture:page14-25 India-East Africa Relations.qxd 11/24/2012 4:33 PM Page 16

AGRICULTURE hevea, millet, palm-tree, coffee, cinchona, cocoa, tobacco, cotton, pyrethrum, tea, gourd, sugar-cane, papaine, sesame, urena and voandzou (Invest in DR Congo, 2012: 12).

4. Ethiopia The country has 111 million hectare of land out of which 74.3 million (45percent of the total area) is suitable for agriculture. However, due to underdevelopment only 18 million hectare is under cultivation. The government offers about 3 million hectare (5 percent of the available land) to local and foreign investors.

The prominent investor ‘Sheikh Mohamad AlAmoudi currently leases 10,000 hectares for a pilot project for rice production in Gambella Regional State.

Under the agreement, his company will be allowed to export no more than 60 percent of its production and 40 percent will be for local consumption.

He is currently looking to increase the investment to $450 million and expand the area for cultivation’ (Ethiopia: Land of Tomorrow, 2012: 5).

Foreign investors may look for products such as: n Food Crops — Cereals and pulses, Oil Crops n Beverage Crops — Coffee, Tea n Horticulture — Fruits and vegetables, herbs and cut flower n Cotton, Sugarcane plantation and sugar processing n Rubber and Palm tree plantation and Apiculturehoney and beeswax n Bio-fuel production — feed stocks for bio-diesel: Jatropha, palm oil, castor, feed stocks for ethanol: sugar cane, sugar beet, potatoes, corn, etc. n Livestock — 43 million heads of cattle, 31 million heads of sheep, 27 million heads of goats, 53 million poultry, 2.3 million camels, 7 million equines.

Investment opportunities here focus on animal fattening, animal feed processing, meat processing and export abattoir for chilled and frozen meat.

Agro-processing deals with the processing and preserving of fruits and vegetables, meat products, fish and fish products, dairy products, integrated production, processing of crude and refined edible oil from oil seeds, processing of starch, cornflakes and edible oil from maize, processing of spices, production of spaghetti, brewing and wine making (Ethiopia: Land of Tomorrow, 2012: 8: emphasis mine). The government of Ethiopia provides 100 percent exemption for the payment of customs duty on imported capital goods, construction material, and spare parts worth up to 15 percent of the total value of the capital goods to be imported.

The income tax exemption is from two to seven years for manufacturing or agro-industrial, agricultural and ICT investments.

16

May - July 2012

India is working on another agricultural revolution and will share its best practices with Africa.

5. Ghana About 57 percent of the total land (of 23.9 million hectares) is suitable for agriculture sector in Ghana and offers opportunities in different products as shown in the Table 2 mentioned below. n Agriculture (Cassava, Cashew, Cotton, Sugarcane, Soya Beans, Oil Palm, Pineapples, Mango, Ostrich, Coconut, Tomatoes, etc.) n Agro-processing (Cocoa, Fruits, Rubber, Vegetables, etc.) n Food-grains (Rice, Millet, Sorghum, Yam, etc)

Table 2: Value of Export of Selected Commodities for 2009: Sr No

Product

Value (000 $)

1.

Cashew

20,154.10

2.

Coffee

1,696.97

3.

Shea nut

26,853.37

4.

Maize

33.76

5.

Yam

12,032.06

6.

Exotic Vegetables

1,308.21

7.

Pineapple

10,628.23

8.

Mango

234.9

9.

Pawpaw

545.60

10.

Fish & Sea Food

48,121.32

11.

Banana

11,589.53

Page10-23 Agriculture:page14-25 India-East Africa Relations.qxd 11/24/2012 4:33 PM Page 17

AFRICA QUARTERLY

n General Infrastructure (Agricultural and Industrial

Estates, Roads, Railways and Ports). n Cattle, Sheep, Goat, Fisheries.

The government gives incentives by way of tax rebates for manufacturing in certain locations, tax holders, ranging from 5 to 10 years depending on sectors, custom import duty exemption for plant machinery, equipment and parts thereof and double taxation agreements.

The tariff incentives refer to zero rated for agro inputs, plant and machinery and non-tariff incentives refer to observation of regulations on import/export of agro-products (Doing Business with Ghana, 2012: 28).

6. Kenya Agriculture is the mainstay of the Kenyan economy and has a great potential for growth. It currently represents 24 percent of the country’s GDP. More than a third of Kenya’s agricultural produce is exported and accounts for about 60 percent of Kenya’s total exports.

Kenya’s agricultural sector’s vision is to be innovative, commercially-oriented and modern, offering investment opportunities in sugarcane development, value addition and marketing infrastructure. This will involve wholesale projects — two wholesale markets for fresh produce in Nairobi, a wholesale market in Nakuru

and a wholesale market in Mombasa.

Livestock production is one of the major activities in the sector that includes dairy industry and hides, skins and leather industries. The fisheries sector plays an important role in the national economy, contributing 0.5 percent to the GDP in 2006 Areas for private sector investment are: value addition in fisheries products, certified fish seed breeding facilities to avail quality seed to fish farmers, Investment in Tropical Aquaria parks for local and overseas tourism, fish leather industry and cooling-plants in major landing bays of Mbita, Sindo, Sori, Sio port, Usenge and Port Victoria.

The water sector offers good investment opportunities in water storage and drilling: Capacity Building of National Water Conservation and Pipeline Corporation and Mzima II Pipeline Project (Kenya — A Hub for Investment, 2012).

7. Mauritius The agricultural sector in Mauritius is being re-engineered to cater to the rising needs of the global food security crisis with an increased diversification of agricultural production, backed by modern techniques and technologies.

Investment opportunities in the sector can be cap-

Africa has approximately 783 million hectares of arable land (27percent of the world total), which is adequate to effectively feed the entire population of the continent.

May - July 2012

17

Page10-23 Agriculture:page14-25 India-East Africa Relations.qxd 11/24/2012 4:33 PM Page 18

AGRICULTURE tured in advanced agricultural technology, including precision farming, hydroponic cultivation, green and organic farming, among others. Furthermore, the transformation of the sugar industry in the sugarcane clusters present opportunities for the production of high value-added sugar, by-products and energy.

Based on a current world per capita consumption of 16 kg, the global seafood market is estimated at $100 billion per year. Mauritius has an exclusive economic zone of 1.9 million sq.km and is set to emerge as a leading seafood hub with seafood export accounting for 16.1 percent of total exports in 2009.

Mauritius also offers the opportunity for sustainable fish farming activities in its lagoons. Furthermore, local companies are also involved in fish transshipment, seafood processing activities and ancillary services.

(Mauritius.2011:23).

8. Mozambique The wide diversity of soil types and climatic conditions, access to over 60 rivers and 36 million hectares of arable land greatly enhance Mozambique’s potential as an agricultural exporter.

The main agricultural exports include cashew nuts, cotton, sugarcane, a variety of fruits and vegetables and tobacco, but virtually any crop can be grown easily in Mozambique — and harvesting can occur months before other countries.

The rich waters in the Indian Ocean offer a variety of seafood products — from world famous tiger prawns to crayfish and langoustine — as well as a variety of fish such as tuna, grouper and cod.

Mozambique also has 19 million hectares of produc-

tive woodland, rich in tropical hardwood and to a lesser extent eucalyptus and pine.

The natural potential of the sector offers a wide range of opportunities for timber, construction materials, furniture, wood products and pulp (Institute of Export Promotion Mozambique. 2011:7).

More than 95 percent of the cashew marketed output is produced by about 1.4 million small family farmers in Mozambique.

Mozambique has favourable agro-climatic conditions for cashew production as well as land available for new orchards, potential for new processing plants and appropriate institutional environment.

The investment opportunities in cashew plantations as per the available area is mentioned under Table-3.

The Mozambican production and its presentation on global markets require a new approach in the packaging sector, to create conditions for the country to compete in an international market, where rules are constantly changing and consumer demands are rising continuously.

The ‘MOZNEGOCIOS-International Packaging and Packaging Equipment Trade Fair June 2-10, 2011’ was a public event with international scope that involved producers, suppliers and consumers of the packaging industry from Mozambique and other countries.

In its second edition, the MOZNEGOCIOS fair brought together companies of the packaging sector and agro-processing enterprises (IPEME.2011:1-4).

Mozambique offers some of the best shipping ports in Southern Africa, serving as a link to the sea for its landlocked neighbours and the rest of the

Table 3: Investment Opportunities in Cashew Plantations as per the Available Area SOUTH ZONE: ( REGULAR TO IRREGULAR RAINFALL, IRRIGATION POTENTIAL) Province Inhambane

Area (ha) 75.000

District Panda, Massinga, Funhalouro,

Production

Current Plants

(Metric Tons)

(Metric Tons)

9000

2500

1000

3500

10,000

3500

Vilanculos e Mabote Gaza

69.500

Chibuto, Chicualacuala

NORTH ZONE (REGULAR RAINFALL, IRRIGATION POTENTIAL) Cabo delagado

50.400

Palam, Nangade, Macomia, Balama, Chiure

Nampula

25.000

Mogincual, Mogovolas Meconta

50,000

30,000

Zambezia

25.000

Maganja da Costa

12,000

3500

Source: Rua da Resistencian, 2012:1-4. CINCAJU. Maputo.

18

May - July 2012

Page10-23 Agriculture:page14-25 India-East Africa Relations.qxd 11/24/2012 4:33 PM Page 19

AFRICA QUARTERLY world. The three main ports in Mozambique are in Maputo, Beira and Nacala. The port at Maputo is a hub surrounding fishing and agricultural industries serving South Africa, Swaziland and Zimbabwe. The ports in Beira and Nacala serve Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Beira is linked to the African hinterland by road and rail.

The recently modernised ports in Mozambique enable them to handle millions of tons of cargo arriving from and departing to distant international destinations (Institute of Export Promotion Mozambique.

2011:8).

9. Nigeria In 2009, the Federal Government introduced the National Food Security Programme in Nigeria to focus on both upstream and downstream activities such as production, storage, processing and the marketing of crops, livestock and fisheries (Programme on Food Processing, Storage, Marketing Out. 2009).

10. Republic of Congo The Ministry of Trade and Supplies attracts investment opportunities in Congo in the different areas of agriculture sector such as: nEstablishment of companies for rental and maintenance of agricultural equipment; nFabrication of chemical fertilisers and production of natural fertilises; nRevival of the business of coffee, cocoa, tobacco and others; nCreation of agro-food industry and revival of industries that have stopped exploitation and have been privatised, such as Sanghapalm for the exploitation of oil palm at Oesso in the north, and RNPC, National Palm Plantations Authority of Congo in the Cuvette region; nEstablishment of the pilot villages; nRealisation of the agro-industrial potential of oil palm, rubber and others, establishment of vegetable villages, intensification of vegetable planting around big cities, development of food crops (paddy, bean, groundnut, potato, cassava, banana, rice and maize, etc.); nProduction of good quality seeds, irrigation of fields, establishment of quality-control centres and establishment of biotechnological laboratories.

(Investment Opportunities in Congo, 2012: 4).

The livestock production opportunities, especially in the breeding sector, attract the restoration of ranches and farms development; production of animal feed; establishment of poultry farms and ranches; creation of processing industry of derivative livestock product; construction of abattoirs in big cities and slaughter

Africa possesses all the prerequisites to become a major growth pole of the world. India will work with Africa to realise its vast potential areas in the secondary centres; creation of purchasing centres of veterinary inputs, equipment and products; development of non-conventional livestock, such as crocodiles, turtles, pigeons, agouti; development of livestock with short-cycle reproduction (poultry, pigs, sheep’s, goats); amelioration of the forage plant; and development of dairy cattle breeding.

Along with it, the continental maritime fishing sector attracts investors to establish structures for material supply and equipment of fishery at reasonable prices; establish structures for factory and supply of food for fish; create modern storage structures; establish transport companies for fishery products (land, river and sea freight); establish appropriate structures to finance fishery, construction of fishing jetty, valorisation of lakes, development of fish breeding, breeding of freshwater crayfish and establishment of enterprises for fabrication and maintenance of fishing boats.

The forest sector of Congo attracts the ‘investors in obtaining exploitation permits and creation of exploitation companies, restoration logging companies, including industrial companies that have stopped exploitation due to diversified reasons by the management, establishment and development of tourist zones in the various wildlife reserves full of rare species and production of logs.

The Congolese forests can support a production of two million m3 of wood and wood products on the basis of a rotating exploitation with damage to their regeneration in sawing and development of wood, production of support poles of power lines, industrial processing of wood, production of pulp, exploitation of the hevea, fabrication of plant-based medicament and agro-forestry. (Investment Opportunities in Congo, 2012: 3).

11. Togo Le Parc des Expositions “TOGO 2000” of Lome hosted the 9th International Trade Fair of Lome from November 25-December 12, 2011. It focused on promoting trade and services of the economy of countries in the sub-region as well as of other continents.

It was also aimed at building contacts between pro-

May - July 2012

19

Page10-23 Agriculture:page14-25 India-East Africa Relations.qxd 11/24/2012 4:33 PM Page 20

AGRICULTURE fessionals for the development of sub-regional and inter-continental commercial activities.

The trade fair is open to economic operators (manufacturers, industrialists, traders, businessmen /women and service providers) from Togo, Africa, Europe, Asia and America.

12. Tunisia The agri-business sector in Tunisia comprises of 791 firms, employing 10 workers and more. Among these firms, 92 produce entirely for export (Table-4). The investments in the agri-business sector have steadily increased during the period 1992-2001.

They went from 100 Million Tunisian Dollars (MTND) in 1992 to MTND 204 in 2001. Their share in the manufacturing investments has been 21 percent in average for the same period. In 2001, the agribusiness sector occupied the second rank in terms of investments in the manufacturing sector, preceded by the textile and clothing sector.

“The exports of the agribusiness sector went from MTND 224 in 1992 to MTND 670 in 2001. The share of olive oil is 30 percent. The imports of the agribusiness sector totaled MTND 888 in 2001, against MTND 350 in 1992. The cereals and cereal by-products, seed oils, and sugars and sugar by-products represent 70 percent of the country’s imports of food products in 2001.

“Tunisia is the 4th international exporter of olive oil, after Spain, Italy and Greece. Given the highly-prized quality of its dates, Tunisia is the top world exporter of this product. 90 percent of the exports of frozen sea products go to Italy and Spain. 97 percent of the fresh tuna is exported to Japan.

“The agribusiness sector comprises 68 joint-venture firms, and 13, 100 percent foreign-owned firms.

25 percent of Tunisian engineers serve in the agricultural and agribusiness sector. The universities and technical institutes provide the local labour market with some 300 specialised engineers per year in the agribusiness sector.

“There are also vocational training centres in the agri-business branch. Their training capacity is of 400 trainees per cycle (training session). A major programme is currently underway to enhance and adapt the training capacities to the needs of the firm’ (Agribusiness: Achievements and Opportunities, 2012: 2).

13. Uganda Uganda is east Africa’s food basket. ‘A KES1-billion food processing plant was commissioned at Makerere University’s Faculty of Food Science and Technology in Uganda in 2009.

The fruit and vegetable processing plant, scheduled to operate on a pilot basis, will help the department produce fruit juice and other foodstuffs for sale as well as train students to become entrepreneurs and agro-processors’ (Food Processing Plant Launched. 2011).

Similarly, Britania Allied Industries, a consortium of food processing firms, plans to invest KES11 billion for the construction of a fruit juice-processing plant in Namanve, Uganda. The investment incentives in agriculture sector focuses on:

Agribusiness: Uganda is among the leading producers of coffee and bananas. It is also a major pro-

Table 4: Breakdown of the firms by Activity and System Activities

Entirely for Export

Other than Entirely for Export

Total

Oil and fatty substances

10

174

184

48

52

Fruits and vegetables

04

Refrigeration

35

27

62

Fishery

35

27

62

Cereals and cereal by-products

05

283

288

Beverages

03

41

44

Milk and dairy product

---

38

38

Sugar and sugar by-product

02

30

32

Meat

---

15

15

Other

10

48

58

Source: Agency for the Promotion of Industry (API), 2012.

NB: The total of the activities are given for the sake of information only: in fact, the same firm may be undertaking several activities.

20

May - July 2012

Page10-23 Agriculture:page14-25 India-East Africa Relations.qxd 11/24/2012 4:33 PM Page 21

AFRICA QUARTERLY ducer of tea, cotton (including organic cotton), tobacco, cereals, oilseeds (simsim, soya, sunflower, etc.), fresh and preserved fruit, vegetables and nuts, essential oils, orchids, flowers and sericulture (silk).

Opportunities include commercial farming and value addition, as well as the manufacture of inputs and supply of agricultural machinery. a) Investment capital allowances Initial allowance on plant and machinery: 50.75 percent Startup cost spread over 4 years: 25 percent p.a.

Scientific research expenditure: 100 percent Training expenditure: 100 percent Mineral exploration expenditure: 100 percent Initial allowance on hotel, hospitals and industrial buildings: 20 percent Deductible annual allowances (depreciable assets) and depreciation rates of assets range: 20-40 percent Depreciation rate for hotels, industrial buildings and hospitals: 5 percent b) Investors who register as investment traders are entitled to VAT refund on building materials for industrial/commercial buildings. c) Duty and Tax free import of Plant & Machinery. d) First Arrival Privileges in the form of duty exemptions for personal effects and motor vehicle (previously owned for at least 12 months) to all investors and expatriates coming to Uganda. e) Export Promotion Incentives and Facilities f) Investors who register as investment traders are entitled to VAT refund on building materials for industrial/commercial buildings. g) Duty and Tax free import of Plant & Machinery h) First Arrival Privileges in the form of duty exemptions for personal effects and motor vehicle (previously owned for at least 12 months) to all investors and expatriates coming to Uganda i) Export Promotion Incentives and Facilities n Manufacturing Under Bond n Duty exemption on plant, machinery and other inputs n Stamp duty exemption n Duty draw back — a refund of all or part of any duty paid on materials, inputs imported to produce for export n Withholding tax exemptions on plant & machinery, scholastic materials, human & animal drugs and raw materials. n Ten year tax holiday — duty remission scheme for exporters involved in value addition.

Source: Uganda Investment Authority, 2012. Kampala.

Uganda.

Fisheries: Uganda’s fish processing sector has expanded greatly in the recent years. The export earnings for the year 2006 were close to $146 million.

Large fresh water expanses are home to a wide variety of fish products. Opportunities are available for fish farming and establishment of more fish processing factories on lakes other than Lake Victoria, Uganda’s fish is a delicacy in Europe and has recently penetrated the U.S. market.

Forestry: Uganda has over 4.9 million hectares of rich forest vegetation and possesses abundant potential in areas like timber processing for export, manufacture of high quality furniture/wood products and various packaging materials. There are also opportunities in afforestation and reforestation, especially of medicinal trees and plants, soft wood plantations for timber, pulp & poles.

14. Senegal Fishing is a significant sector of the economy, but agriculture is Senegal’s principal resource, accounting for almost 50 percent of the country’s total exports.

Peanuts are the main commodity produced in the country, but attempts have been made to diversify into others, particularly cotton, the second largest export commodity, millet, sugar cane, fruit and vegetables.

Phosphate is the most important mineral resource, although there are also significant iron ore deposits as well as oil. India facilitated Senegal’s agriculture sector on lines of credit such as: n $15 million for acquisition of agricultural material and the creation of rural enterprises. n $27 million for irrigation projects with a view to achieve rice self sufficiency.

The agricultural sector comprises of almost 70 percent of Senegalese population. Under Indo-Senegalese cooperation, India has provided 510 tractors, equipment for tilling, carts, drilling machines, pumps, trucks and maize processing and enriching equipment.

The Senegal government and Indian Farmers Fertiliser Co-operative Limited (IFFCO) signed an agreement of about $240 million. There are export opportunities in the agri-business sector, with the AGOA visa in: n Floriculture n Fruit Cultivation n Market Gardening n Thousands of hectares of Cashew nut plantation n Diversification of the industrial processing of groundnut. n Fish Cultivation n Support to the development of horticultural exports. n Improvement of the condition of market operation.

May - July 2012

21

Page10-23 Agriculture:page14-25 India-East Africa Relations.qxd 11/24/2012 4:33 PM Page 22

AGRICULTURE bishment, as well as investment in value-adding processing of agricultural equipment (Zimbabwe Investment. 2010-15).

17. Zanzibar Zanzibar, a part of United Republic of Tanzania, offers investment opportunities in: Agriculture n Horticulture and Floriculture. n Agro-processing. n Fruit processing and Canning.

The Forum Summit 2011 initiates an alternative to African countries either to go for the SAP or build indigenous techniques in partnership with India. n Support to agri-business producers and operators

for a better adaptation of products to the market.

Fisheries There is a potential for development of various types of fish, shrimps, lobsters, seaweed and other marine resources. Investors are free to choose suitable areas for: n Deep sea fishing. n Fish Farming n Processing and Canning

n Development of private irrigation and land-related

activities’ (Dr. Suresh Kumar, 2008).

15. Zambia The government regards the growth of the agricultural sector as a crucial element in enhancing Zambia’s foreign exchange earnings and economic development.

Although the agricultural sector employs more than half of the total labour force, only 15 percent of the arable land in under cultivation.

It is because of this potential that the government encourages investment in commercial farming. The country is now looking to diversify its economy and fully exploit the agricultural sector.

The government facilitates input tax claim for three months prior to VAT registration for businesses that have already commenced trading and reduction of VAT rate for investors in tax free zones (Zam-Indo Business Profiles, 2012:11-12).

Anyone investing not less than $500,000 in any of the priority sectors listed is entitled to fiscal incentives.

The sectors are: floriculture (fresh flowers and dried flowers), horticulture (fresh and dried vegetables) and processed foods (wheat flour).

16. Zimbabwe The agriculture sector remains under-capitalised with insufficient inputs and infrastructure.

The capitalisation of commercial farming enterprises includes meat processing, poultry and fish farming, juice extraction, horticulture, floriculture and cotton-processing, Infrastructure development and refur-

22

May - July 2012

Zanzibar is known as the Spice Islands. The investment opportunities in spices include: n Cloves, n Cinnamon, Cardamom, nutmeg, black pepper, chilies, etc.

Conclusion During the Forum Summit on the India-Africa Food Processing Cluster, India declared that it will contribute to value-addition and creation of regional and export markets; an India-Africa Integrated Textiles Cluster to support the cotton industry and its processing and conversion into high value products; an India-Africa Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting to harness satellite technology for the agriculture and fisheries sectors as well as to contribute towards disaster preparedness and management of natural resources; and an India-Africa Institute of Agriculture and Rural Development.

India will work with Regional Economic Communities to establish at the regional level, Soil, Water & Tissue Testing Laboratories, Regional Farm Science Centres, Seed Production-cum-Demonstration Centres, and Material Testing Laboratories for Highways.

The Forum Summit 2011 has focused on Africa’s selfreliant development in agriculture sector and initiates an alternative to African countries, either to go for the SAP or build indigenous techniques in partnership with India and achieve real development and get rid of any sort of colonial past.

Page10-23 Agriculture:page14-25 India-East Africa Relations.qxd 11/24/2012 4:33 PM Page 23

AFRICA QUARTERLY

REFERENCES 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

11.

12.

13.

14.

Agri-business: Achievements and Opportunities, 2012. Agency for the Promotion of Industry (API).

Tunisia.

Alexander Sarris and Jamie Morrision .ed, 2010.

Food Security in Africa. FAO. UK. Arthur & Doris L Holmes. 1978. Homes Principles of Physical Geology, Third Edition, UK. Annual Review, 2012. Business for Livelihood. CII. B K Jagdish, 1996. One Week Course of Godly Knowledge. For Attainment of Complete Purity,Peace and Purity.Om Shanti Press.

Rajasthan.

Background Note, 2012. Creating Possibilities, Delivering Values. 8th CII-EXIM Bank Conclave on India-Africa Project Partnership, 18-20 March 2012. New Delhi.

CII Annual Regional Meeting, 2012. Annual Review, 2012.

David Bigman, 2011. Poverty, Hunger and Democracy in Africa. Plagrave. UK. Doing Business with Ghana, 2012. IACCI, Mumbai.

Dr. Suresh Kumar.Aug-Oct.2008. Nurturing the Tilling Fields of Africa. Africa Quarterly. Vol. 48.

No.3.

Ethiopia, Land of Tomorrow, 2012. Ethiopian Investment Agency. Addis Ababa.

Food Processing Plant Launched. All Africa.

August 2011. Dow Jones Factiva.

IPEME.2011. 2nd Mozambique International Packaging and Packaging Equipment Trade Fair.

Setembro.

Indian farming companies buying in Africa. 2011.

15.

16.

17.

18.

19.

20.

21.

22.

23.

The Economic Times. http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Corporate-Trends/Indian-farmingcompaniesbuying-land-in-Africa/articleshow/4713183.cms, accessed 28 January 2011.

Indian business groups are investing heavily in Africa.

Cote d’Ivoire — Diaspora website,www.ivoirediaspo.net/?s=Indian+business+groups+are+investing+heavily+in+Africa&x= 5&y=11, accessed 27 January 2011.

Invest in D R Congo, 2012. National Agency for Investment Promotion, ANAPI. Kinshasa.

Investment Opportunities in Congo, 2012. Ministry of Trade and Supplies. Brazaville.

Institute of Export Promotion Mozambique. 2011.

Maputo.

Kenya- A Hub for Investment, 2012. Ministry of tate for Planning National Development and Vision 2030. Nairobi.

Mauritius. 2011. Your Investment and Business Hub. Board of Investment.

Programme on Food Processing, Storage, Marketing Out, 2009. Nigeria Zam-Indo Business Profiles, 2011. Zambia High Commission. New Delhi.

Zimbabwe Investment Authority, Ministry of Power & Energy Development, Ministry of Finance — The Medium Term Plan 2010-2015 Document, Banks & Banking Survey 2009 — Zimbabwe Independent Newspaper, CZI July 2008 Manufacturing Sector Survey, Financial Gazette (7th January)

May - July 2012

23

Page24-33 Pranay-Sinha:page14-25 India-East Africa Relations.qxd 11/24/2012 4:35 PM Page 24

DIPLOMACY

Managing TRANSPARENCY With India’s development aid to African and other developing countries growing at a fast pace, there is a renewed need to make it more transparent both from domestic as well as international actors.

Pranay Sinha reflects on how the Indian aid transparency efforts should be targeted 24

May - July 2012

Page24-33 Pranay-Sinha:page14-25 India-East Africa Relations.qxd 11/24/2012 4:35 PM Page 25

AFRICA QUARTERLY

I

ndian development assistance has grown both in its size and scope since 2003 when the India Development Initiative was established to channel development aid to African and other developing countries. Its loan and grant portfolio in the neighbouring countries is growing at a fast pace, especially in Afghanistan, where India is the fifth or sixth largest donor with overall commitment touching $2 billion in 2011.

Concessional Lines of Credit (LoCs) worth $5.4 billion announced during the 1st India–Africa summit in 2008 and last year’s announcement to further extend $5 billion in LoCs has triggered the debate nationally and internationally about the growing size of Indian development assistance. Therefore, there is a call to make it more transparent both from domestic as well as international actors.

On the domestic front, the Indian Parliament, though its Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, demands information to review the performance of Indian Development and Economic Assistance Scheme (IDEAS) since the committee is responsible for its approval (Press Information Bureau, Govt. of India, 2011). The parliamentarians demand information in the form of parliamentary questions to Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) regarding various aspects of Indian development assistance to different developing countries.

There is an ongoing debate over the Comptroller and Auditor General Office’s jurisdiction to audit the LoCs extended under IDEAS and if LoCs are audited, then given the different role of MEA, Ministry of

Finance and EXIM Bank in its implementation — which organisation should be responsible for its audit (Mitra, 2011)?

There are rare voices from civil society which question the transparency of Indian development assistance and its aid bureaucracy as well as how different programme and budgets are debated and authorised in the Parliament (Tandon, 2009). And finally what role is transparency playing to form the public perception or opinion about India’s own outgoing development assistance, especially when it is debated that these precious aid resources instead would be more useful in the battle against poverty in India.

On the international front, transparency and open government activists are influencing the transparency debates globally without any restriction to any national boundary, location or organisation. Now after the Accra and Busan high-level forums, it is widely agreed that it’s the donor government’s responsibility to make aid information available so that recipient governments’ finance ministry, line ministries and central bank can effectively plan their budget and use information for effective service delivery and macroeconomic management (Development Initiatives Poverty Research, 2009).

In doing so, the media and civil society organisations (CSOs) can use published aid information to hold their respective governments (donor as well as recipient) to account over its usage and effectiveness.

And finally, the citizens of the recipient country can provide feedback about the quality of service delivery

India’s Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh with other Heads of States at the first India-Africa Forum Summit in New Delhi on April 8, 2008.

May - July 2012

25

Page24-33 Pranay-Sinha:page14-25 India-East Africa Relations.qxd 11/24/2012 4:35 PM Page 26

DIPLOMACY regarding aid transparency to whom and towards which direction arise. To conceptualise the different directions of transparency, Heald (2006) has provided a useful four-dimensional framework of transparency in which upwards and downwards transparency are classified as vertical dimension and inwards and outwards transparency are classified as horizontal dimension.

Heald’s four-dimensional framework is drawn on here to demonstrate to whom and towards which direction the aid transparency efforts should be targeted.

1. Vertical (Upwards & Downwards) Transparency

Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh with the then African Union Commission Chairman Dr. Jean Ping (left) and the President of Equatorial Guinea Obiang Nguema Mbasogo (centre) at the Opening Plenary Session of 2nd Africa-India Forum Summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on May 24, 2011.

and whether their needs were matched or unmatched, that will improve the accountability of government and other implementers in the aid delivery chain.

From which directions the domestic and international demand for transparency is coming and towards whom the Indian aid transparency efforts should be targeted and how? The paper attempts to answer this by initially drawing on Heald’s fourdimensional framework to analyse the different directions of transparency.

It further contextualises the international aid transparency initiative (IATI) against the backdrop of OECD DAC donor’s transparency environment and the widely established transparency practice is located in different aid instruments.

In order to align India’s transparency practice with the widely established transparency practice, the next subsection focuses on the information of which development cooperation instruments need to be published

by India and why.

And finally, a conclusion and two points recommendation is offered to manage transparency in Indian development assistance.

Aid Transparency: To whom and towards which direction?

In view of the demand for transparency both from domestic as well as international fronts, questions

26

May - July 2012

The vertical dimension of transparency functions on the principal — agent school of thought where various roles can be performed by various actors. For example, monitoring and surveillance over the actions of agents (Ministry of External Affairs, Ministry of Finance and EXIM Bank) by the principal (Indian Parliament) is possible when there is an upward transparency available in the political system.

It could be hierarchical in nature where for instance a section officer’s decision making could be monitored by Deputy Secretary, Joint Secretary and Additional Secretary of the newly established Development Partnership Administration at the Ministry of External Affairs, which in turn can be monitored by External Affairs Secretary and Minister.

Further, all entities (actors) involved in the authorisation and utilisation of public money are liable to be audited by the office of Comptroller and Auditor General, which is an independent entity and fulfill the constitutional obligation by examining the departmental spending and reporting to the Parliament (principal) directly.

The dimension of downwards transparency is accountability focused and demonstrates democratic accountability of the donor government towards its own citizen. Since it’s the taxpayer’s money, the citizens have right to know as how the resources generated as government revenue are allocated and utilised by their democratically elected government.

However, in the case of foreign aid where two sovereign states are involved, the accountability relationship can transcend the state boundary and reach to the citizens of the recipient government as well.

Barder has strongly recommended that transparency ought to be citizen centred and not donor centred (Barder, 2011) which effectively means that the aid information should be targeted to citizens both in donor as well as recipient country.

Page24-33 Pranay-Sinha:page14-25 India-East Africa Relations.qxd 11/24/2012 4:35 PM Page 27

AFRICA QUARTERLY

2. Horizontal (Inwards & Outwards) Transparency Inwards & outwards transparency can be understood when the ‘actions inside the glass structure can be observed from outside’ and vice versa (Heald, 2012: 33). From an organisational perspective, it can be said that inwards transparency is an outsider’s ability to observe what’s going on within an organisation and outwards transparency is the ability of an observer within an organisation to observe the surrounding and monitor its peer and competitors (Okland et al, 2010: 5).

From an outwards transparency perspective, it’s extremely important to identify what transparency practices other aid donors are pursuing as it will not only help India to locate itself in the larger aid transparency environment but also align its transparency strategy with widely established transparency practices.

It’s very likely that after such assessment, the alignment of the transparency practice i.e. amount of inwards aid transparency will depend upon the transparency practices of other bilateral donors i.e. the amount of outwards aid transparency (Heald, 2006: 40). So, in order to locate the larger aid transparency environment, the next section is focused on the

state of transparency in official public flows in which how transparency is governed internationally by bilateral aid donors.

Global Aid Transparency Environment: International Aid Transparency Initiative The International Aid Transparency Initiative (IATI) has its roots in Accra Agenda for Action 2008.

‘Commitments on aid transparency were made in the Accra Agenda for Action where signatories agreed to make aid more transparent and publicly disclose regular, detailed and timely information’ (Hubbard and Sinha, 2011). IATI established itself as a global aid transparency standard in February 2011 when donors agreed to the standard to publish their information about aid spending.

At the Busan high level forum in December 2011, it was agreed that donors will ‘make the full range of information on publicly funded development activities, their financing, terms and conditions, and contribution to development results, publicly available subject to legitimate concerns about commercially sensitive information’ (Busan HLF Outcome Document, 2011: 6).

Table – 1 State of Transparency in Official Public Flows: DAC & Southern Donors OFFICIAL DEvELOPMENT ASSISTANCE (ODA)

OTHER OFFICIAL FLOwS (OOF)

OECD DAC’s Classification

Country Programmable Aid no cross-border

Humanitarian Aid, debt relief, flows i.e. administrative costs, imputed student costs, promotion of development awareness and research and refugees in donor countries, food aid and aid from local governments, core funding of NGOs Programmable Aid

OOF except export credit

Nature of access when reported to CRS

Public Access

Public Access

Restricted Access

Mandate of IATI for DAC donors

Yes

No

No

Availability of aid data of Southern Providers

No central database for S-S cooperation equivalent to CRS. Limited and poorly available data when captured

by AidData database.

Compatibility with IATI Standards

Out of 33 IATI categories, 27 categories are fully compatible with the South-South Cooperation. Only two categories are not compatible and four categories can be easily made compatible with minor modifications.

Source: Sinha & Hubbard, 20111

May - July 2012

27

Page24-33 Pranay-Sinha:page14-25 India-East Africa Relations.qxd 11/24/2012 4:35 PM Page 28

DIPLOMACY And finally on June 29, 2012, IATI was agreed as new, common and open standard on aid transparency at the working party for aid effectiveness where the emerging economies also agreed on a voluntary basis and step by step implementation of the IATI standard (PwYF, 2012). The goals of the IATI are six fold (IATI, 2009) and are as follows: a) Improved decision making b) Create stronger pressures for better delivery c) Build national and international accountability for how aid is used, d) Enable aid to be linked to results; e) Limit the scope for corruption, duplication and waste; and f) Improve research and learning.

Having located the state of transparency in official public flows internationally (i.e. outwards transparency), now it’s important to focus on different types of Indian development cooperation instruments and its implications on India’s proposed transparency practice. As mentioned above, an assessment in terms of widely established transparency practices will help India to locate and align its own transparency practice for its different development cooperation instruments.

India’s Development Cooperation Instruments vis-à-vis transparency The MEA is the nodal ministry responsible for extending India’s development cooperation through its various diplomatic missions abroad. The two devel-

India’s External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna inaugurating the second phase of the Pan-African e-Network Project for twelve countries in New Delhi on August 16, 2010.

28

May - July 2012

opment cooperation instruments through which India extends its development assistance are the Aid and Technical Assistance Programme and the LOCs. This paper deals only with the instruments that are bilateral in nature and not the contributions to international organizations, which includes multilateral bodies such as UN and African Union peacekeeping operations.

India’s Aid and Technical Assistance Programme covers both the bilateral loans and grants programme and the specialised capacity-building programmes.

Bilateral grants and loans are mostly extended to Afghanistan, Bhutan, Nepal, Myanmar and Sri Lanka for various development projects. ITEC/ SCAAP training programmes normally involve training, project activities, study tours and deputation of Indian experts abroad.

A study to explore the compatibility of South-South Cooperation data categories with ongoing IATI categories conducted by Sinha & Hubbard (2011) concluded that out of 33 IATI categories, 27 categories are fully compatible, only two categories are not compatible and four categories can be easily made compatible with minor modifications. One of the two categories that are not compatible is default flow type which determines whether any flow is an ODA or non ODA. The loans and grants that falls under the category of ‘official development assistance’ (ODA) are made transparent by DAC donors where as the ‘other official flows’ (OOF) which includes officially supported export credits are not transparent in the OECD creditors reporting system.

The public access to disaggregated information is available only for the ODA category and not for the OOF that includes official direct export credits. So question arises what needs to be published by India as one of the development assistance providers, if it has to align it transparency practice with the wider aid transparency environment i.e. IATI and in what format.

The IATI standard can be subdivided under two themes i.e. organisational and activities. ‘The organisational standard is designed for reporting the total future budgets of organisations and forward planning budget data for recipient institutions and countries.

The activity standard is designed for reporting the details of individual aid activities’ (IATI Standard, 2011). It can ‘show, when and where aid is used’, it’s ‘open and comparable aid information’. Its ‘timely and transactional level financial data’ can be tracked and it is based on the principle of ‘publish once, use often ‘(ibid).

Page24-33 Pranay-Sinha:page14-25 India-East Africa Relations.qxd 11/24/2012 4:35 PM Page 29

AFRICA QUARTERLY

What Development Cooperation Instrument’s Information should be Published?

1. India’s Aid & Technical Assistance Programme All the information of India’s Aid & Technical Assistance Programme i.e. bilateral loans and grants to developing countries & ITEC/ SCAAP programme should be targeted to be published as per IATI standard. It will be in alignment with the transparency practices of the larger aid transparency environment.

2. Lines of Credit To assess whether LoCs should be made transparent, it’s important to revisit the transparency practices of other aid donors in export credit and compare it with India’s own transparency practice.

DAC donors share their detailed export credit information with each other in the DAC’s creditors reporting system but have restricted public access to the information.

Since export credits do not fall under the category of ODA, it’s not mandatory to publish information according to established transparency standards.

As India does not follow the official definition of ODA, it is not yet known that whether Indian aid policy makers are aware of the DACs transparency norms in export credits. As OECD guidelines on ODA state that any ‘lending by ECAs — with the pure purpose of export promotion — is excluded’ from the category of ODA’ (OECD, 2003) and thus it’s not mandatory to disclose such information according to internationally agreed transparency standard.

Nevertheless, since the purpose of LoCs extended by India is to promote international trade through financing the export of goods and services, it is the blurred line of pure purpose of the LoCs that will decide whether it’s an aid instrument or trade instrument.

The Indian EXIM Bank is significantly transparent in its LoC portfolio as it publishes disaggregated information of its operative LoC that is updated on a weekly basis (as on July 9, 2012) and details of its pipeline projects (as of July 4, 2012) (Exim Bank, 2012).

The governance of LoCs i.e. terms and conditions and procedure adopted in respect of GOI supported LoCs, procedural flow chart and tender notices on behalf of recipient governments are publically available on the Exim Bank website.

Hubbard and Sinha (2011) offered a critique of the existing transparency environment and made a case

India’s Aid and Technical Assistance Programme covers both the bilateral loans and grants programme and the specialised capacity building initiatives for including other public flows for development under the transparency regime on the ground of its ‘public flow’ in nature. They argued that ‘transparency for public flows for development through information disclosure should be non-negotiable irrespective of whether or not they are ‘official development assistance’ (ODA)’ (ibid).

If the public flows are for ‘the promotion of the economic development and welfare of developing countries as the main objective, and which are concessional in character with a grant element of at least 25 percent’ they are termed as ODA (OECD, 2003).

So irrespective whether Indian LoCs are ODA or not, it’s therefore recommended that the Indian LoCs should be made more transparent on these two grounds: n Accountability to the public exchequer As the parliament through its CCEA has given the mandate that the resources for LoCs are to be raised directly by the lending agency i.e. primarily EXIM Bank and alternatively by any other suitable lending agency, the EXIM bank despite having independence to raise resources on its own is directly accountable to parliament through the CCEA. The accountability can be determined on the basis of following three mechanisms.

Firstly, as all the concessional loans are backed by sovereign guarantee given by the borrower government and is to be counter guaranteed by GoI, it is the risk free nature of investment that is guaranteed to EXIM bank.

In the case of any default on debt accrued due to EXIM LoCs, it is practically government guarantee by GoI which is going to bail the EXIM Bank out and eventually public exchequer will bear the brunt of export credit investment that might go wrong due to loan default by the recipient or borrower government.

And secondly, it has a direct bearing on the Indian public exchequer since the interest equalisation support is to be provided from the budgetary resources to Exim Bank for enabling them to lend further on concessional terms. Thus on these two counts, the

May - July 2012

29

Page24-33 Pranay-Sinha:page14-25 India-East Africa Relations.qxd 11/24/2012 4:35 PM Page 30

DIPLOMACY

India’s Minister for Commerce & Industry and Textiles Anand Sharma addressing the 2nd India-Africa Trade Ministers’ Meeting, in New Delhi on March 17, 2012.

EXIM Bank is accountable to the parliament through its CCEA and have to be transparent so that CCEA would perform its financial oversight role.

There are other ongoing efforts to reform the transparency practices of export credit agencies internationally. For instance, there is an Export Credits Guarantee Department (Regulation and Reporting) bill to be discussed in the UK parliament and calls for ‘the publication of an audit of all sums owed to the department, an annual impact assessment and a real-time disclosure policy on all supported projects’ (UK Parliament, 2011).

And finally, it is citizens’ right in the recipient country to hold their respective governments to account over its usage and effectiveness as it’s recipient’s tax payer’s money that will be used to service the debt accumulated due to EXIM LoCs. These citizens are not concerned with the DAC’s blurred line drawn as whether the LoCs are official development assistance or other official flows.

For instance, land acquisitions by Indian companies in Africa are commonly termed as ‘land grab’ and linked with the government’s support through its LoC (GoI Monitor, 2011). It’s not yet known as whether Indian LoCs have played any systematic role in those land acquisitions or not but publishing details of LoCs would enable observers to form opinion on the basis of transparent information disclosure.

In the past, export credit agencies globally have funded large infrastructural projects such as ‘mining, oil drilling, road and dam construction, power plants, and sale of weapons and military equipment’ (CIEL, 2003:2) and have generated unsustainable debt there-

30

May - July 2012

fore raising suspicion among critiques of exportimport financing agencies. n Benefits of Efficiency Gain due to Transparency There can be different indicators of efficiency gains but this section deals only with the one i.e. budgetary authorisation and utilisation of IDEAS LoC. The budgetary authorisation and utilisation can be tracked at the overall scheme level (total LoC portfolio) as well as programme (single credit line) and project level (individual projects within a credit line).

At the overall scheme level, verma and Banerjee (2010) reported that `405.1 million of IDEAS scheme was surrendered for the period between 2007-08 and 2009-10 and the parliamentary standing committee on finance criticised the government that it has operationalised only part of the scheme. The two IDEAS components for which the budgetary allocation was surrendered were assistance for project preparation and project training.

‘The committee raised serious doubts over the efficacy or desirability of the scheme’ and recommended ‘the government to review the scheme’ (ibid).

Further, in May 2012, the parliamentary standing committee on external affairs expressed its concerns over the understaffed foreign ministry that was ‘overstretched and working under capacity’ and the committee members were also not satisfied ‘with the slow pace of implementation of the authorised expansion’ (Chaudhary, 2012).

At the programme level, it was reported that Indian LoCs of $1.0 billion extended to Bangladesh is delayed due to its harder terms and conditions. 8 of the 21 projects were planned to be dropped and

Page24-33 Pranay-Sinha:page14-25 India-East Africa Relations.qxd 11/24/2012 4:35 PM Page 31

AFRICA QUARTERLY replaced. The procurement policy in which at least 85 per cent of goods, works and services were to be procured from India was found to be not working and infrastructure projects of railways and roads and highways sector were delayed.

The time lag between signing and operationalisation could be contributed to delay in procurement which was not viable due to higher quoted prices from the Indian contractors. It’s not known as whether it’s a standalone case where the quoted price was higher than expected or the problems with procurement to the tune of 85% is experienced across the board of LoCs portfolio.

So it could be argued that there is a strong link between lack of adequate supply of foreign ministry staff with the project delays and even instances of fund surrender for certain IDEAS components. As observed in the past a few of the donor side constraints1 that could end up in delay in disbursements as well as affect the performance of the Indian LoC programme (Sinha, 2008) are as follows: n ‘Inadequate supply of staff with requisite skills and experience for project preparation and supervision n Rigid and undifferentiated application of procurement and safeguard policies and n Bureaucratic, centralized, and time-consuming response processes from donor headquarters’.

The ‘understaffed foreign ministry’ which is ‘overstretched and working under capacity’ constraints along with procurement delays and time consuming response in absence of a dedicated development cooperation agency reflects the existing inefficiencies in the Indian aid delivery system. It is expected that the increased transparency will facilitate the greater scrutiny of the projects which will ensure agencies involved to be more accountable for timely problem solving and decision making and therefore timely implementation of the project.

I argue that one of the preconditions of any organisation to be transparent and accountable to different stakeholders is its own organisational capacity and the lack of staffs have not only adversely impacted project progress and fund surrender but also desired transparency of the Indian LoCs. A right step forward is the establishment of ‘Development Partnership Administration (DPA)’ division within the MEA which is set up to oversee the Indian development assistance portfolio. Currently 20 officials are overseeing the different aspect of project administration and there is a further plan to double the strength of the DPA by the end of 2012 (Chand, 2012).

It provides an opportunity to strengthen the trans-

A right step forward is the establishmentof the ‘Development Partnership Administration (DPA)’ division within the MEA parency commitment made at the highest political level and the reputation of India as a development partner, which is at risk due to various factors that are affecting the timely implementation of the projects. However these inefficiencies should not be seen as controversial or unwelcome rather as an opportunity for the effectiveness gains due to increased transparency.

Conclusion & Way Forward The paper examined the domestic and international demand of transparency in Indian development assistance drawing on Heald’s four-dimensional framework. As demonstrated the demand of transparency is coming from the four directions therefore it’s recommended that it should be targeted at all the four dimensions.

To address the downwards transparency dimension; it should be targeted towards Indian citizens as well as citizens of the recipient countries receiving Indian development assistance. The IATI which is an internationally agreed transparency standard demonstrates not only the transparency practices of other aid donors (amount of outwards transparency) but also addresses the needs of the citizens both in the donor as well as recipient country (downward transparency).

So agreeing to publish Indian aid information according to the IATI standard would cater to both outwards and downwards requirement of transparency. By doing so, Indian aid would be able to align its transparency strategy with widely established transparency practices and provide an opportunity to outsiders the ability to observe what’s going on within Indian aid portfolio (inwards transparency).

India has predominantly two development cooperation instruments: aid & technical assistance and LoCs programme. The international aid transparency environment is managed on the basis of DAC donor’s division between aid and trade instrument and accordingly the information on aid instruments are disclosed. The disaggregated information of officially supported export credits are not disclosed on the ground of legitimate concerns about commercially sensitive information.

May - July 2012

31

Page24-33 Pranay-Sinha:page14-25 India-East Africa Relations.qxd 11/24/2012 4:35 PM Page 32

DIPLOMACY

The way forward is to make aid transparent in a way that is able to fulfill the need of stakeholders in all the four dimensions As India does not segregate its development assistance programme between aid and trade instrument it’s not yet known why it already discloses the terms and conditions of its operative LoCs and the pipeline projects. Does it not consider this disclosed information as commercially sensitive or is it the government’s interest equalisation support and sovereign backing making it ‘public flows for development’ and thus eligible for public disclosure?

There has always been a debate over the amount of transparency over two opposite aspects of transparency i.e. disclosure of information which is ‘public’ in nature vs. withholding ‘commercially sensitive information’, so whatever may be the drivers of this limited transparency in Indian LoCs, it is in the right direction and should be welcome.

However, the question arises whether the information published will be sufficient to fulfill the need of the hierarchical superiors (upwards transparency) i.e. within the Ministry of External Affairs, Parliament through its cabinet committee and parliamentary questions and recipient governments (agents of principal-agent model).

A few of the requirements can be fulfilled for instance the parliamentary question (Lok Sabha question 2085/ December 07 2011 — Bilateral Assistance to Afghanistan) asked regarding the details of the projects to Afghanistan, project-wise fund allocation and the details of projects which impart training to Afghan forces (Ministry of External Affairs, Govt. of India, 2011).

It’s expected that in first instance, most of these questions would not be asked if aid information is already publicly disclosed and if asked, can easily be prepared to respond by the DPA. As the cabinet com-

mittee review the progress of the development assistance schemes, it is the DPA which is responsible to demonstrate that it captures all the information needed as well as facilitate the timely problem-solving and decision-making and therefore timely implementation of the project.

So it can be concluded that the way forward is to make Indian aid transparent that is able to fulfill the need of the stakeholders in all the four dimensions.

Apart from information required to be published according to the IATI standards, there is a need to collect information to manage the decision-making process within the Indian aid bureaucracy i.e. staff at the donor headquarter level (DPA, Ministry of Finance and the EXIM bank) and the recipient bureaucracy (Ministry of Finance and other line ministries/ implementing agencies).

It is therefore recommended that it can be done by taking two complimentary steps. First, to establish a development assistance portfolio management information system by assessing the life cycle processes required to make decisions for different development assistance instruments and should be targeted to integrate feedback loops and possess the ability to generate reports. As the newly established DPA must be collecting aid information in its project database, the information which are not yet collected and additionally required as per the IATI standard should be targeted to be captured.

And second, India should adopt the transparency practice of the IATI initiative or modify it to its wider south-sooth cooperation principle. The larger objective should be to demonstrate a firm political commitment towards making Indian development assistance transparent and take step to step implementation to adopt the IATI standard.

Other emerging economies like South Africa and Brazil have also agreed to implement the IATI on a voluntary basis. By taking these two steps it is expected that India would be able to make its development assistance transparent on both domestic as well as international fronts and at the same time fulfill the demand of transparency from various directions.

REFERENCES 1.

32

Based on Research project ‘A Future for Aid Data: Research towards a South-South Cooperation data categorisation to complement ongoing IATI categorisations’ funded by DFID through its

May - July 2012

2.

Future of Aid and Beyond research competition 2010-11 Based on Asian Development Bank’s externally aided project portfolio in India

Page24-33 Pranay-Sinha:page14-25 India-East Africa Relations.qxd 11/24/2012 4:35 PM Page 33

AFRICA QUARTERLY

BIBLIOGRAPHY 1.

Barder, Owen (2011) ‘Eight lessons from three years working on transparency’ http://www.owen.org/ blog/4433 accessed on 2nd July 2012 2. Busan High Level Forum (2011) ‘Busan Partnership for Effective Development Cooperation Outcome Document’ http://www.aideffectiveness.org/ busanhlf4/images/stories/hlf4/OUTCOME_DOCUMENT_-_FINAL_EN.pdf accessed on 15th July 2012 3. Chand, Manish (2012), ‘India to make foreign aid more transparent: S M Krishna’ in News Track India http://newstrackindia.com/newsdetails/2012/06/11/101--India-to-make-foreign-aid-moretransparent-S-M-Krishna-Interview-.html accessed on 13th June 2012 4. Chaudhury, Dipanjan Roy (2012) ‘Shashi Tharoor wants to bring in ‘Experts’ as Diplomats’ in the India Today http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/ shashi-tharoor-wants-to-bring-in-experts-as-diplomats/1/198152.html accessed on 10th July 2012 5. CIEL (2003) ‘Export Credit Agencies and the world Trade Organisation’, A Centre for International Environmental Law Draft Issue Brief http://www.ciel.org/Publications/ECAs_wTO_Nov03. pdf accessed on 10th July 2012 6. Development Initiatives Poverty Research (2009) ‘International Aid Transparency Initiative – Scoping Paper for Consultation’ 7. Exim Bank (2012) ‘Exim bank’s LoCs’ http://www.eximbankindia.com/loc.asp accessed on 10th July 2012 8. GoI Monitor (2011) ‘land Grab in Africa, brought to you

by India’ http://www.goimonitor.com/story/ land-grabafrica-brought-you-india accessed on 10th July 2012 9. Heald, David (2006) ‘varieties of Transparency’ in Hood, Christopher and Heald, David, eds.

Transparency: the key to better governance?

Proceedings of the British Academy Oxford University Press, Oxford, 10. Heald, David (2012) ‘why is transparency about public expenditure so elusive?’ ‘International Review of Administrative Sciences March 2012 vol. 78 no. 130-49 11. Hubbard Michael and Pranay Sinha (2011), ‘The case for including other public flows for development’ in The Broker 12. IATI (2009) ‘IATI Concept Note’ http://www.aidtransparency.net/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/ iaticoncept-note-p1.pdf accessed on 29th June 2012 13. IATI Standard (2011) http://iatistandard.org/ accessed on 1st July 2012 14. Ministry of External Affairs, Govt. of India (2011),

15.

16.

17.

18.

19.

20.

21.

22.

23.

24.

25.

‘Question 2085 Bilateral Assistance to Afghanistan’ Unstarred Loksabha Question http://www.mea.gov.in/mystart.php?id=220218693 accessed on 15th June 2012 Mitra, Devirupa (2011) ‘MEA gets billion dollar CAG query’, The Indian Express, accessed on 15th June 2012 OECD (2003) ‘Glossary of Official Terms’ http://stats.oecd.org/glossary/detail.asp?ID=6043 accessed on 2nd July 2012 Økland Andreas, Lillebo Børge, Amdahl Eva and Seim Andreas (2010) ‘A Framework for Transparency’, Conference paper POMS 21st Annual Conference, vancouver, Canada http://www.pomsmeetings.org/ConfPapers/015/0150839.pdf accessed on 23rd July 2012 Press Information Bureau, Govt. of India (2011) ‘Extension of Indian Development and Economic Assistance (IDEA) Scheme’ http://pib.nic.in/ newsite/erelease.aspx?relid=70441 accessed on 23rd July 2012 PwYF (2012) ‘Public communication’ over tweet https://twitter.com/aidtransparency/status/218674251786485760 on 29th June 2012 Sinha Pranay and Michael Hubbard (2011) ‘Compatibility of South-South Development Cooperation vis-a-vis IATI Standards’, International Development Department, University of Birmingham Sinha, Pranay (2008), ‘An Analysis of India’s Aid Absorption Capacity through “Pipeline” Effect Lens’ Practitioner Speech in a research conference on “Solutions for a complex world: Governance, Aid Effectiveness, Conflict and Crisis’’ at Maastricht Graduate School of Governance, The Netherlands Sinha, Pranay (2010) ‘Indian development cooperation with Africa’, in Cheru, Fantu and Obi, Cyril (eds) The Rise of China and India in Africa, London and Uppsala, Zed Books and The Nordic Africa Institute.

Tandon, Rajesh (2009) ‘Need to mobilise our ‘soft’ power’, Business Standard (19 July 2009) UK Parliament (2011) ‘Export Credits Guarantee Department (Regulation and Reporting) Bill 2010-12’ http://services.parliament.uk/bills/2010-11/exportcreditsguaranteedepartmentregulationandreporting.html accessed on 10th July 2012 verma, Sunny and Ronojoy Banerjee (2010) ‘Africa Aid Scheme Proves Non–Starter’ in The Financial Express http://www.financialexpress.com/ news/africa-aidscheme-proves-nonstarter/702416/0 accessed on 10th July 2012

May - July 2012

33

Page34-35 In Conversation:page14-25 India-East Africa Relations.qxd 11/24/2012 4:37 PM Page 34

IN CONVERSATION

‘India has made foreign aid dispensing more transparent’ We have worked out a system to ensure transparency and will not be found wanting, External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna tells Manish Chand

W

ith a view to injecting greater transparency and swiftness in dispensing funds to foreign countries, India’s External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna has initiated a host of steps, including the setting up of a central aid agency.

“We believe in providing total transparency in all our operations. It’s a fact that in the last four-five years, India has emerged as one of the big donors among developing countries for less developed and smaller countries,” Krishna told Africa Quarterly in an interview.

“We have worked out a system to ensure transparency and will not be found wanting,” he replied when asked about the allegations of funds diversion and delays in delivery of aid.

India has scaled up aid and soft loans of over $11 billion to developing countries as part of its long-term strategy to put forward India’s strategic interests through economic diplomacy and soft power projection.

“Till now, our aid budget has been small. However, it’s been growing for some time. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced $5 billion for Africa at the second IndiaAfrica Forum Summit in Addis Ababa last year,” he said.

The foreign aid, which India likes to call developmental assistance, includes $7.5 billion to Africa, $2 billion to Afghanistan, $1 billion to Myanmar and substantial aid to neighbouring countries like Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and the Maldives.

“It’s one of our key priorities to provide a structural framework for dispensing aid. All aid is now being channelised through the Development Partnership Administration (DPA),” Krishna said. The DPA was set up in January in a bid to enhance India’s soft power and economic diplomacy through swifter aid delivery.

Krishna said the DPA’s strength will be doubled over the next six months in view of the need to fast-track commitments made by India to various countries.

The DPA currently comprises around 20 officials who also include professionals from other countries and brings under one umbrella all aspects related to project implementation, ranging from monitoring implementation and auditing impact assessment.

Experts from other ministries, including the railways, telecommunications, agriculture and human resource development, are being brought on deputation into the

34

May - July 2012

India’s External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna said it was one of India's key priorities to provide a structural framework for dispensing aid.

DPA’a fold. Experts also join from outside the government as consultants on a project-to-project basis.

Although the DPA, a department of the External Affairs Ministry, was set up in January, it acquired traction only after the BRICS summit of emerging powers in March-end.

The DPA is headed by P.S. Raghavan, Additional Secretary in the External Affairs Ministry.

Underlining the need for probity, Krishna also stressed that he wanted to keep the ministry’s operations and activities above board. “That’s why in all projects related to the ministry, we have an open tendering system so that we can get the best service provider for a particular project. These contracts are not done through nomination,” he said.

Page34-35 In Conversation:page14-25 India-East Africa Relations.qxd 11/24/2012 4:37 PM Page 35

AFRICA QUARTERLY

Beyond cultural exchange...

The Indian Council for Cultural Relations is moving beyond traditional exchanges to focus on education and capacity building initiatives

T

he cultural cooperation between India and Africa is moving beyond traditional exchanges to focus on education and capacity building initiatives which can become “a part of the national idiom”, says Suresh Goel, Director General of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR).

The ICCR, which functions under India’s External Affairs Ministry, has taken the lead in cultural cooperation between India and Africa with a series of exchange programmes since 2011, when representatives of Indian and African countries met in Addis Ababa from May 20-25 for the second India-Africa summit.

“Our primary aim was to promote understanding between cultures through traditional exchanges, but we find that to develop sustained understanding in future, we need to build studies and academic collaborations with Africa,” Goel said.

He said that till April 2012, 516 scholarships were given to African students.

“But this year we have increased the number of scholarships to 900. The subjects of study include every discipline in science, humanities and the arts,” he said.

The ICCR Director General said “chairs have been set up to promote Indian studies in Africa in countries like Mauritius, Nigeria and South Africa, which has a chair of political studies sponsored by India”.

“Similarly, we support a Nelson Mandela chair in India,” Goel said.

“We are trying to deepen the understanding between India and Africa so that it becomes a part of the national idiom. Education exchanges help put such understanding on the people’s psyche. The cooperation should not remain a visual experience; it should be discussed and taught in universities and public forums.”

Goel said “the broad focus of India’s cultural and diplomatic ties with Africa is an ideological kinship, people-topeople contacts and recognition of each other’s needs”.

“This kinship is rooted in the shared history dating back to pre-history, early anthropological history, colonial history and the legacy of de-colonisation. History says the roots of the friendship are nearly two billion years old with the drift of the continental landmass. There is evidence of trade-related travel from India to southern and eastern Africa,” Goel said.

Culture is the cement of the bilateral ties between

(Above) A presentation by a troup from Sudan during the two-day Africa Festival sponsored by the ICCR in June; (Below) Director General of ICCR Suresh Goel.

African nations and India in the contemporary times, Goel said.

“Our collaboration in performance arts has increased tremendously in the last two years. ,” he said.

Goel said between April 2010 and March 2011, 16 Indian troupes performed in Africa. “In comparison, between April 1, 2011, and March 31, 2012, 28 troupes from Africa performed in India,” Goel said.

Goel said the ICCR has been lending its name and support to several private initiatives in involving Africa in the arts and handicrafts sectors as well.

“The ICCR cultural cells in cities like Cairo, Dar-esSalam, Phoenix (Mauritius) and Lagos (which will be operational soon) have been pushing the soft power of Indian culture in Africa. The large population of Indian origin in Africa helps consolidate cultural understanding and exchanges,” Goel said. — Madhusree Chatterjee

May - July 2012

35

Page36-41 Ethopia:page14-25 India-East Africa Relations.qxd 11/24/2012 4:41 PM Page 36

SCALING THE SUMMIT

African leaders attending the Ordinary Session of the 19th African Union Summit at the new African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa on July 15.

Notes for a resurgent Africa From electing the first female head of the AU Commission to taking a pledge to resolve conflicts and push democracy, the 19th Summit of the African Union set a hopeful note for a resurgent continent, writes Manish Chand

A

frican leaders ended their 19th biannual summit that saw the election of the first female head of the African Union Commission and a renewed pledge to push democracy and fast-track resolution of crises in the continent’s hotspots, including Mali, the Sudans, Guinea Bissau and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

36

May - July 2012

Held in the shining Chinese-built new headquarters in Addis Ababa, the July 15-16 summit’s attention-drawing event that overshadowed other issues was the election of South African Home Affairs Minister Nkosozana Dlamini-Zuma as the new chairperson of the African Union Commission — the executive body which manages day-to-day affairs of the 54-nation African Union.

Page36-41 Ethopia:page14-25 India-East Africa Relations.qxd 11/24/2012 4:41 PM Page 37

AFRICA QUARTERLY Dlamini-Zuma, a veteran anti-apartheid activist and a former wife of South African President Jacob Zuma, broke the glass-ceiling by becoming the first woman head of the AU Commission. She was sworn in past midnight on July 16 by Benin’s President Boni Yayi, the chair of the AU, signalling the end of the leadership stalemate that has plagued the AU since a deadlocked election in January this year.

Jean Ping, a former Gabon’s foreign minister who helmed the AU for the last four years, graciously accepted defeat and congratulated Dlamini-Zuma.

“This is a memorable moment,” Ping said, wishing her “the very best success in undertaking this noble mission”.

The end of the leadership battle, which was marked by a sharp polarisation between Anglophone and Francophone countries, has infused new hope in the continent about the AU’s new leadership to resolve formidable challenges facing the continent amid the global slowdown. Partisan politics is behind, and the dominant sentiment is now one of African unity, solidarity and integration.

“My view is that I’m an African citizen. I am loyal to the African Union, and I will serve the African Union, and I’ll work collectively with every member states,” said Dlamini-Zuma, setting the tone for a resurgent AU leadership in coming days.

The summit, themed ‘Boosting Intra-African Trade’, also saw African leaders discussing acceleration of a free trade area and intense debates to map the way forward out of debilitating crises in the continent’s hotspots.

Voicing concerns over the post-coup crisis in Mali as one of the biggest security threats to Africa, home to priceless treasures of Timbuktu, the AU pitched for restoration of the civilian government in the West African state by July-end.

The AU is now expected to step up efforts to get the western regional bloc, Economic Community of West African States, to support a plan for a possible military intervention in northern Mali, where Islamist militants have seized control and unleashed destruction of ancient holy shrines and artefacts.

In other key peace initiatives, the presidents of Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) signed a pact on July 14 to support the formation of an international force to confront an armed rebellion in the eastern part of the DRC. Welcoming the agreement, AU Peace and Security Commissioner Ramtane Lamamra underlined the new spirit of give and take in resolving the continent’s crises, which hopefully should become more prominent in days to come.

“Both, at the level of ministers and heads of state,

Nkosozana Dlamini-Zuma, the new chairperson of the African Union Commission.

The end of the leadership battle has infused new hope in the continent about the AU’s new leadership to resolve the challenges facing the continent there is a new spirit. There is an equal eagerness to work together to overcome the misunderstandings that may exist on the ground. And, I believe, that the only thing that we can request of you is give us a chance to work and develop a new spirit, and translate it into deeds on the ground,” he said.

It was in this spirit that the presidents of Sudan and South Sudan met here on the sidelines of the AU summit and their negotiators continued the talks to hammer out a deal to resolve issues of contested territory, oil revenues and citizenship. The AU has directed both countries to honour the August 2 deadline to seal an enduring deal to enable the emergence of two viable states living in peace and harmony with each other.

Another good news that emerged from the summit was an increased focus on advancing democratisation

May - July 2012

37

Page36-41 Ethopia:page14-25 India-East Africa Relations.qxd 11/24/2012 4:41 PM Page 38

SCALING THE SUMMIT of the continent, with Jean Ping criticising what he called the “unconstitutional transfers of power”.

The UN lauded this trend towards democratization in the continent. Africa is now a home of thriving democracies, where elections are peaceful and the press is free, said UN deputy secretary-general Jan Eliasson.

Decade of women Africa exalted the spirit of women power and empowerment as Liberia’s President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the first female elected head of state in the continent, on July 14 asked the international community to support the quest for food security in the 54nation region.

The African Union, the continent’s premier decision-making body, had declared 2010-2020 as the decade of women, with a slew of initiatives designed to raise the profile of African women in key economic sectors and decision-making bodies.

“Unless we achieve food security, we can’t have sustainable development,” said the 73-year-old Sirleaf, while stressing that women produce around 60 percent of food in developing countries. This year, the AU’s women agenda is focusing on agriculture, food security and environment.

Food security is at the top of the millennium devel-

opment goals, and African women play a key role in this area, she said in the Ethiopian capital, the headquarters of the AU. Dressed in a floral traditional gown, Sirleaf, the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2011, pointed out that the AU was supporting 53 grassroots projects in 27 African countries to promote women empowerment.

Sirleaf and Malwai’s President Joyce Banda are the only two female heads of state from the African continent. Sirleaf was speaking at a special lunch jointly hosted by her and her Malawian counterpart in the multi-purpose hall of the swanky new headquarters of the AU. Banda sent her vice-president to represent the country at the summit after she refused to host the AU summit owing to differences over the presence of Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir, wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged genocide in the Sudanese province of Darfur, at the meet.

The AU wants to reinforce gender equality and empowerment in the continent, said Jean Ping, the chairperson of the AU Commission, the premier decision-making body of the AU. Ping also exhorted Africa and the international community to pledge funds for buttressing women power in the continent.

The lunch saw countries like South Africa, Australia and Malawi pledging funds for promoting

Liberia’s President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the first female elected head of state in the continent.

38

May - July 2012

Page36-41 Ethopia:page14-25 India-East Africa Relations.qxd 11/24/2012 4:41 PM Page 39

AFRICA QUARTERLY women power in the continent.South Africa pledged $125,000 for the cause of African women while Australia committed $100,000 for it.

The African Women’s Decade (2010-2020), launched in Nairobi, Kenya, in October 2010, is a pioneering political initiative aimed at putting women at the centre of development on the continent.

The popularisation of this initiative, however, remains hobbled by the lack of sufficient information about it among many women, particularly the illiterate and those living in rural areas.

To bolster women contribution to economic empowerment, the Economic Community for West African States (ECOWAS) and the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD) on July 13 signed an agreement for the establishment of a $1.2 million Business Incubator for African Women Entrepreneurs (BIAWE) in the sub-region.

Tackling the scourge of malaria The African Union summit saw the African Leaders Malaria Alliance (ALMA), a regional lobby of 43 African heads of state, renew its pledge to work closely with the African Union to end the scourge of malaria on the continent.

It wasn’t just pious rhetoric. Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, the ALMA chair, was quick to underline that the continent needed an additional $3.2 billion in funding over the next three years to achieve universal access to life-saving tools and continue the drive toward eliminating malaria deaths.

Sirleaf said the assault on malaria has to begin in Africa, which accounted for nine-tenth of worldwide deaths from the disease in 2010. “A share of these resources will come from Africa. We can’t ask the world to invest in Africa’s health if we won’t make the same investment ourselves, but we will need the world’s help,” said Sirleaf.

At a meeting held on the sidelines of the summit, Sirleaf also unveiled a partnership among ALMA, the Confederation of African Football (CAF) and United Against Malaria (UAM) to leverage the popularity of soccer icons to reach out to millions of African football fans with well-targeted malaria messaging.

The CAF has in fact adopted malaria as a signature social message of the 2013 Orange Football Cup of Nations. “CAF recognises that in order for African football to compete on the global stage, we must have players and communities free of malaria,” said Issa Hayatou, President of CAF. Ahead of the final round of matches for the Orange Cup in September-October, some of African football’s biggest stars, including Ghana’s Andrew (Dede) Ayew,

African heads of state renewed their pledge to work closely with the African Union to end the scourge of malaria on the continent Cote d’Ivoire’s Gervinho, and Senegal’s Moussa Sow, have already recorded malaria prevention and treatment messages in new UAM public service announcements (PSAs) that will be aired during the tournament.

“I am strongly committed to fighting against malaria. Soccer can be used to reverse the course of this deadly disease,” says Roger Milla, Cameroonian football icon, who is among celebrity soccer players who have thrown their weight behind the anti-malaria campaign.

Soccer chic apart, funding, technology and innovation hold the key to a malaria-free Africa. The stakes are huge: every dollar invested in malaria control in the continent generated $40 GDP on the continent, reveals a recent independent study commissioned by ALMA, the United Nations SecretaryGeneral’s Special Envoy for Malaria, and the Roll Back Malaria Partnership. The study also showed that scaling up to universal coverage of prevention, diagnosis and treatment of malaria by the end of 2015 will prevent 640 million cases and avert three million malaria-related deaths.

In this context, innovative financing will play an important role. The signs are encouraging: Over the last five years, an airline tax has raised over $2 billion, of which $1.2 billion has been invested in the global fight against HIV/AIDS, TB, and malaria.

Currently, six African countries are implementing the airline tax and 14 countries are in the pipeline. Besides 44 African ministers of health have been trained on an iPad application that has been launched by ALMA to enhance interactivity with ministers and enable a rapid response system to emerging crises in countries.

Other good news coming out of Africa is that 14 countries have hiked their domestic contribution to public health by more than two percent in times of the global slowdown.

There is still a long way to go in this ongoing battle against malaria, but the net gains would be astonishing: according to various estimates, Africa will add at least $300 billion to GDP if the disease is eliminated from the continent.

May - July 2012

39

Page36-41 Ethopia:page14-25 India-East Africa Relations.qxd 11/24/2012 4:41 PM Page 40

INTERVIEWS

‘New leaders committed to deepen India ties’ In an interview with Manish Chand, Ethiopia’s Ambassador to India Gennet Zewide identifies agriculture, textile, infrastructure and technology as key sectors for Indian investments

Ethiopia’s Ambassador to India Gennet Zewide.

T

here will be orderly transition in Ethiopia despite the death of its long-time leader Meles Zenawi, the country’s envoy has said, and assured that robust business ties between India and the East African nation — India is the second largest foreign investor there — will continue and get even stronger.

“In the last 21 years, Ethiopia has built strong institutions and a robust parliamentary system. There is an orderly succession plan in place, whereby the deputy prime minister will succeed the deceased leader,” Ethiopia’s Ambassador to India Gennet Zewide said.

Rejecting speculation of a coup in some sections in the Western media, the envoy said emphatically: “In our system, the military will always be subservient to Parliament and the civilian government. This is not going to change.”

Zenawi, 57, was Ethiopia’s prime minister for 21

40

May - July 2012

years till he died of illness on August 20. He is widely credited for shepherding the transformation of Ethiopia, once known for famine, disease and poverty, into one of the fastest growing economies and a stable democracy in the Horn of Africa.

Ethiopia’s acting Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, who was sworn in after Zenawi’s funeral, will run the country till elections are held in 2015.

Striking an upbeat note on the future of IndiaEthiopia ties, Zewide said the strong foundations laid

by Zenawi, who visited India four times, will only get stronger in days to come.

“The prime minister (Zenawi) had a special affection for India. During his tenure, India-Ethiopia relations scaled new heights. The new leadership is equally committed to deepening this strategic relationship,” Zewide said.

“The policies, strategies and vision of our leader will be continued. There is no uncertainty and there should be no anxiety on this front. Business will go on as usual,” she added.

The envoy identified agriculture, textile, infrastructure and technology as key sectors where Indian investments in Ethiopia would see a major upsurge.

“We expect more Indian companies to invest in agriculture. To make it easier for investors, the Ethiopian government has embarked on a new policy whereby we clear land, build access roads and provide power so that investors can start their operations as quickly as possible.”

In the last few years, India has emerged as the second-largest foreign investor in Ethiopia, investing around $5 billion. Bilateral trade between India and Ethiopia is estimated to be $660 million. The two countries are looking to scale up Indian investments in Ethiopia to $10 billion by 2015.

The envoy quoted Zenawi, who was fond of saying that Indians don’t come to colonise but to help develop the nation. In the textile sector, she pointed out that a host of Indian companies were planning major investments to set up yarn factories in Ethiopia.

Page36-41 Ethopia:page14-25 India-East Africa Relations.qxd 11/26/2012 3:37 PM Page 41

AFRICA QUARTERLY

‘African women to drive continent’s resurgence’ Litha Musyimi-Ogana, African Union’s chief pointsperson on gender issues, says putting more women in power and decision-making bodies will help spur the African resurgence

I

t’s a dream come true for African women, says Litha Musyimi-Ogana, the African Union’s chief pointsperson on gender issues as she hails the election of the first female head of the AU Commission, saying more women in positions of power will spur the continent’s resurgence.

“We are extremely elated about the election of Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, who has broken the glass ceiling by becoming the first elected woman head of the AU Commission. It’s good news for Africa and for the African women,” Musyimi-Ogana, Director, Women, Gender and Development Directorate, in the AU Commission, said.

After a bitterly-fought election for the 54-nation AU’s top job last week, it’s business as usual at the glittery Chinese-built AU headquarters in the Ethiopian capital.

But one can still sense a surge of jubilation among women who are still rejoicing in the victory of DlaminiZuma, who has joined a small club of power women in Africa, which includes Liberia’s President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Africa’s first elected female head of state, and Malawi President Joyce Banda.

“There can’t be a better person than Mrs. DlaminiZuma to occupy this post as she actively fought for gender parity even when she was the foreign minister of South Africa. It’s a dream come true for us,” said MusyimiOgana, an impassioned advocate for women’s rights.

“Africa is providing leadership in the area of women’s empowerment, transforming things on the ground and opening doors for women to enter public life,” she said. She reels off an impressive array of statistics to underline the unstoppable march of African women as they conquer new heights in their quest for empowerment and parity.

“In Senegal, 42 percent of the legislators are women.

In Rwanda, 56 percent of Parliament comprises women. In South Africa, around 40 percent legislators are women.”

Musyimi-Ogana is upbeat about the prospects of women empowerment in the continent and envisages

Litha Musyimi-Ogana, the African Union’s chief pointsperson on gender issues.

new milestones that are waiting to be scaled.

“Unlocking the potential of women can unlock the potential of a nation. Putting women in power and decision-making bodies will help spur the African resurgence,” she said.

The situation of women in Africa, said MusyimiOgana, has shown a steady incremental improvement over the last decade. It’s a silent revolution in the making, with pan-African institutions like the African Union and the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) incorporating gender parity and empowerment in their polices and practices.

The AU has set up a fund for women which includes 1 percent of contributions made by member-states for the AU and also supports 53 grassroots projects in 27 countries to advance the empowerment of women.

— Manish Chand

May - July 2012

41

Page42-47 Feature:page14-25 India-East Africa Relations.qxd 11/24/2012 5:24 PM Page 42

FEATURES

SEWA: Taking women to the fore India’s Self-Employed Women’s Association is working in the textiles and agro-processing sectors in Africa by partnering with local non-profit groups

SEWA is engaged with more than 40,000 women at the grassroots in western Africa.

I

ndia is reaching out to Africa with its expertise in grassroots development and gender empowerment projects to help poor women in countries like Ghana, Mali, Burkina Faso and Nigeria become selfreliant with sustainable farm-based and traditional livelihoods.

One of the country’s largest independent networks of grassroots women, the Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA), is working in the agro-processing and textiles sectors in Africa by partnering with local non-profit groups, said Reema Nanavaty, SEWA’s director of rural and economic development.

The organisation is powered by 1.35 million members across 11 states in India.

“We have engaged with more 40,000 women at the grassroots in western Africa with the support of the Indian government,” Nanavaty said.

Nanavaty said the organisation’s intervention projects in Africa were in the greater scheme of India’s bilateral initiatives in capacity building and facilitating sustainable development in the continent.

“We have set up five food processing centres in Ghana for women and two each are on the way in Mali

42

May - July 2012

and Burkina Faso. They will be followed by one in Nigeria,” the SEWA functionary said.

Created in Gujarat in 1972 by grassroots visionary Ila Bhatt, SEWA has spread its women’s empowerment mission across the borders to forge gender solidarity in Africa, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Bhutan. It has a turnover of nearly $133 million.

The organisation recently unveiled a new partnership with MasterCard in the agro-processing sector by inaugurating a food packaging centre for women in Bodeli.

The centre is an initiative under the organisation’s RUDI brand, owned by marginal women farmers to ensure food security in the micro and domestic sectors.

Under the three-tier structure of the RUDI enterprise, a chain of women workers collect the produce from small cultivators at fair prices to avoid the nexus of middlemen and bring the stock to an agricultural development centre. These centres are the nodal processing bodies from where the processed food is sent to the RUDI centres to be packaged and weighed for sale by women.

A fleet of women hawkers sells the processed

Page42-47 Feature:page14-25 India-East Africa Relations.qxd 11/24/2012 5:24 PM Page 43

AFRICA QUARTERLY agro-products in the villages. “Our organisation has engaged with 28 Afghan women in three RUDI centres across Afghanistan. The network is expanding in the impoverished grassroots,” Nanavaty said.

Change has been SEWA’s slogan as it has marched from its textile labour roots to empower women in agriculture, food production, energy and crafts, Nanavaty said.

“We were part of the women’s wing of the textile labourers founded by Gandhiji to recognise the work of headloaders and the poor cloth sellers in the markets and villages. (SEWA founder) Ila behn decided to organise these women into labour unions in the informal sectors where there is no employer-employee relationship. We wanted them to become stakeholders,” Nanavaty said.

SEWA has two feathers in its cap. It has been able to give women rights in family holdings to recognise them as farmers and has been the role model for the Nobel Prize-winning Muhammed Yunus’ Grameen bank Project in Bangladesh, Nanavaty said.

“Granting land rights to women was a big struggle. We found it difficult to convince the men who questioned the need to have the names of women in family land titles. It was necessary for joint loans. In the late 1980s, we managed to include names of women in family land titles. It was the beginning of a

SEWA’s Director Reema Nanavaty.

slow transformation,” Nanavaty said.

The organisation has an extensive micro-credit loop. SEWA is now looking to marry technology with women’s socio-economic empowerment in villages, the official said.

— Madhusree Chatterjee

Opening a new health ‘Gate-way’ India is keen to work with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in Africa in areas like health and sanitation

I

ndia has found a new gateway to project its Africa diplomacy as it explores a partnership with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation which is engaged in a range of activities in the emerging continent.

This possibility of collaborating in Africa emerged from talks between External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna and Microsoft founder Bill Gates in New Delhi on May 31.

“We explored the possibility of working with the Gates Foundation in Africa, to jointly explore partnership in Africa,” Krishna said after his talks with Gates.

With Africa suffering a host of debilitating health problems like malaria and HIV/AIDS, health has been identified as a focus area for prospective cooperation.

Krishna lauded the “exemplary service” rendered

by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in fighting diseases and poverty alleviation. He singled out the Gates Foundation for its contribution in the area of eradication of polio.

India has carved a niche for itself in the health sector in Africa through capacity building initiatives.

Indian pharmaceutical companies have expanded their operations across the continent. The pan-Africa e-network is bringing benefits of tele-medicine to African people by linking top Indian hospitals with facilities in African countries. The Indian government also seeks to partner the Gates Foundation in other areas like sanitation. The Gates Foundation had launched successful initiative titled ‘Reinventing the Toilet’ last year in Rwanda to help bring safe, clean sanitation services to millions of poor people.

May - July 2012

43

Page42-47 Feature:page14-25 India-East Africa Relations.qxd 11/24/2012 5:24 PM Page 44

FEATURES

Winds of Trade Kenya-born Indian-origin writer Blanche Rocha D’Souza believes that the thriving link between traders from western India and east Africa made the British take notice of the continent

Blanche Rocha D’Souza’s book traces the business links between India and Africa.

D

id Indian traders prove to be catalysts in Britain’s colonisation of Africa? Yes, says the author of a book on sea trade between India and Africa.

Blanche Rocha D’Souza, an Indian-origin writer born in Kenya, says the thriving link between traders from western India and eastern Africa may have made the British curious about what was once called the Dark Continent.

“The British were already in India. It was only when they saw Indian traders doing thriving business in east Africa, especially Zanzibar, that they decided to see what Africa was really about. Slowly, the process of colonising the continent began,” D’Souza said.

Published by Zand Graphics, her book Harnessing the Trade Winds — The Story of the Centuries-Old Trade with East Africa, Using the Monsoon Winds traces the business between India and Africa, which goes back thousands of years, much before European colonisers began ruling the seas.

“The trade is as old as it can get. It dates back to 3,000 years before Christ. This is how rich and cul-

44

May - July 2012

turally significant the trade between India and Africa is,” D’Souza said.

She said she collected data from books sourced from the libraries in Kenya, Mumbai and Zanzibar.

D’Souza, a former teacher of English and a librarian, has lived in Kenya and Karachi and has her ancestral roots in Goa. She said the cotton grown by farmers in MohenjoDaro during the Indus Valley Civilization was one of the goods Indian traders took with them to Africa.

“Hundreds of years before Christ, cotton was grown only in one place in the world — Mohenjo-Daro. That was what the Indian traders from what we know as the Gujarat region now used to send to the east Africa port of Zanzibar, which was then a trading hub,” she said.

Indian cotton, planted on the fertile plains of the Nile river, was later known as long staple cotton and considered one of the world’s finest. In exchange for cotton, the traders brought back animal skins, rhino horns and tusks. “After cotton, the trade of spices began,” she said.

Indians, according to D’Souza, even named some of the rivers which run through Africa. “The Mara river, which flows through the Masai Mara game range, was named by Indian travellers,” she said.

D’Souza said she wrote the book after she realised that the Arab and European sources of information downplayed the importance of Indian trade in the Indian Ocean.

“In all my research, I found that Arab and European sources of information downplayed the importance of Indian trade in the Indian Ocean which goes back at least 3,000 years before Christ,” she said.

“My book attempts to rekindle in the Indian diaspora a justifiable pride in the achievements of its forebears in east Africa, and indeed other parts of the world. In east Africa, they promoted the development of agriculture and industry and the globalisation of trade stemming from their trading activities,” D’Souza said.

— Mayabhushan Nagvenkar

Page42-47 Feature:page14-25 India-East Africa Relations.qxd 11/24/2012 5:24 PM Page 45

AFRICA QUARTERLY

India is assisting Nigeria fight terror by sharing specialised training, equipment, strategy and intelligence.

Revitalising West Africa India is rapidly strengthening its relations with two major players in the West African region — Nigeria and Ghana

I

ndia’s footprint is growing in West Africa, especially in two main players in the region, Nigeria and Ghana, with increased trade across sectors and cooperation in various other fields.

India is helping Nigeria revitalise its Defence Industries Corporation through a public-private partnership programme, according to Mahesh Sachdev, Indian High Commissioner in Abuja.

India is also assisting Nigeria in its fight against terror by sharing specialised training, equipment, strategy and intelligence. The cooperation is under a memorandum of understanding on defence that the two countries signed in 2007.

Since last year, Boko Haram, a group intent on setting up an Islamic state in Nigeria, has stepped up bombing attacks in the country that have killed many.

Sachdev said India was ready to help Nigeria develop its defence sector.

“We have the experience and we are ready to share that experience with Nigeria. But you decide in what areas our experience is relevant to you, and in what areas we can be of help,” Sachdev said.

In Ghana, Food and Agriculture Minister Kwesi Ahwoi said his government was negotiating with India on financing the construction of a fish processing plant

in Elmina, in the country’s central region.

In July this year, the Confederation of Indian Industries organised a three-day “India Show” in Accra, Ghana. The trade show provided a platform for Indian firms and their Ghanaian counterparts to network with the key stakeholders like policymakers, captains of industry, financial institutions and business solutions providers.

With these various engagements, two-way trade in the region has shot up considerably in volume and value.

Trade between Nigeria and India was valued at $16.4 billion (N2.5 trillion) in 2011. According to the India High Commission in Abuja, Nigeria’s exports to India stood at $12.4 billion in 2011, representing a 71 per cent increase over the previous year, while India’s exports to Nigeria grew by 58 per cent to $22 billion.

Adil Zaidi of consultancy Ernst & Young Adil Zaidi told a workshop in Abuja that the trade with India could improve further if Nigeria could formulate good policies for business development.

Indian investors, he said, would be able to increase trade between the two countries by investing in power generation and transmission, transportation, water, petroleum, renewable energy and healthcare.

— Francis Kokutse

May - July 2012

45

Page42-47 Feature:page14-25 India-East Africa Relations.qxd 11/26/2012 3:38 PM Page 46

FEATURES

Morocco: Not just minerals Moving beyond the supply of phosphates, Morocco now wants to strengthen its ties with India in sectors like manufacturing and hospitality

M

orocco, the North African nation that supplies the bulk of India’s needs for phosphate, a key ingredient in fertilisers, is looking for expansion in ties to include more joint ventures in sectors ranging from automotives to information technology to the hospitality industry.

Morocco, a constitutional monarchy with an elected Parliament, is “contributing to India’s food security” but wants its relations to expand beyond supply of phosphates, of which it holds two-thirds of global reserves, to investment in manufacturing and services.

“India is our top trading partner in Asia and the third largest globally. We have set an excellent example of South-South cooperation. These ties now must expand. There is a great scope for that as well,” Morocco’s Ambassador to India Larbi Reffouh said on July 16. “There are already two major joint ventures between our two sides in the broad area of fertilisers.

But scope exists in virtually every field — from automotives and textiles to agro-processing and information technology,” Reffouh told Africa Quarterly.

Morocco’s Ambassador to India Larbi Reffouh.

46

May - July 2012

A country of 32 million people that is part of what is called the Maghreb region, it shared bilateral trade worth $1.6 billion with India last year, and accounts for some 60 percent of the country’s phosphatic needs, a mineral that primarily used in the manufacture of diammonium phosphate, an important plant nutrient.

India’s Aditya Birla Group and the Tatas have an equal joint venture with a state-run company of Morocco at Jorf Lasfar, some 150 km from Casablanca, to produce 430,000 tonnes of phosphoric acid, nearly all of which is exported to India. This apart, Morocco has also invested in Paradeep Phosphates for a unit in Odisha with a capacity of over 2 million tonnes per annum of phosphatic fertilisers. The Zuari Group and the Government of India also hold stakes in the company.

According to the ambassador, Morocco which has 70 important tourist destinations, also seeks investments from India in the hospitality sector, particularly for construction and maintenance of hotels and said help was at hand even for acquisition of land.

In fact, the Tata group already runs a luxury hotel in Marrakech, and hopes to open another in Casablanca by the end of this year.

The ambassador explained that among the incentives given to foreign investors in his country include freehold land ownership and financial support in acquisition of land for factories, modern infrastructure and liberal taxation and other norms.

Under the Moroccan law, local and international investors are treated equally. Whatever incentives are available for national investors are also applicable for overseas investors.

Morocco is the largest recipient of foreign investment in North Africa. It received $18 billion such capital between 2000 and 2009, according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). Majority of it is in fertiliser and minerals.

India and Morocco have set up a joint commission to facilitate two-way investments and trade. “The next meeting of the joint commission will be held sometime in the first quarter of 2013,” the ambassador said.

Ambassador Reffouh said Morocco and India also share common vision in a host of both regional and multilateral forums, notably in the United Nations.

Page42-47 Feature:page14-25 India-East Africa Relations.qxd 11/26/2012 3:39 PM Page 47

NEWS

‘Mandela and Gandhi continue to be a source of inspiration for us’ We need to work together in the UN, G20 and various other multilateral organisations, says Max Sisulu, Speaker, South African National Assembly

Nelson Mandela and Mahatma Gandhi continue to animate partnership between India and South Africa.

W

hen freedom icon Nelson Mandela was released from prison in 1990, he was asked which country he would like to visit first. And he said it would undoubtedly be India, recalled Max Sisulu, the son of the legendary anti-apartheid activist Walter Sisulu.

Delivering the Nelson Mandela lecture in New Delhi on July 10, Sisulu, who is now speaker of the South African National Assembly, evoked the special connection between the ideals of Nelson Mandela and Mahatma Gandhi and stressed that the two icons continue to

animate the contemporary partnership between India and South Africa.

“Mandela and Gandhi continue to be a source of inspiration for us,” said Sisulu. “Mandela described Gandhi as a sacred warrior. Gandhi was both an Indian and South African citizen,” added Sisulu during the lecture, organized to mark the 94th birthday celebrations of Mandela.

Recalling Mandela’s choice of India as his first overseas destination after becoming president, Sisulu said the visit in 1995 laid the foundations for a solid strategic partnership between the two countries.

“India and South Africa are two great democracies with common values and convergent interests, said the 67-year-old Sisulu, whose father India honoured with the Padma Vibhushan, the country’s second highest civilian award, in 1998.

Alluding to the shift of power from the West, Sisulu said India and South Africa are uniquely poised to exert influence in this fluid environment.

“We need to work together in the UN, G20 and other multilateral organisations as we have common positions on international issues,” said Sisulu, who also heads the African National Congress’ Economic Transformation Committee. In 1967, India became the first country to accord full diplomatic status to the ANC.

Special children celebrate Mandela Day

A

round 50 visually impaired children from a reputed Mumbai school on July 18 celebrated the 94th birthday of South African freedom icon Nelson Mandela with musical performances and a cake-cutting ceremony.

Organised by the Mumbai consulate general of South Africa, the celebrations and revelry were also attended by a delegation of the consulate headed by Consul General Pule Malefane.

“What could have been a better way to celebrate the great visionary’s birthday, who spent most of his life in darkness to give light to South Africa,” Malefane said

while celebrating the day with children of Happy Home & School for the Blind at Worli in south Mumbai.

Nelson Mandela’s birthday was declared as International Nelson Mandela Day by the United Nations in 2009. It is celebrated by people across the world to commemorate the 67 years of struggle suffered by Mandela to abolish apartheid.

The celebrations at the school consisted musical performances by the visually impaired children. The festivities ended with a cake cutting ceremony wishing Mandela a long life.

May - July 2012

47

Page48-53 News:page14-25 India-East Africa Relations.qxd 11/26/2012 3:40 PM Page 48

NEWS

No border between India and Africa Kampala University Vice Chancellor B.D. Kateregga stresses that Indians are now officially recognised as the 53rd tribe in Uganda

I

ntellectuals, political and diplomatic representatives of African countries underlined the importance of South-South cooperation and the role of India as a catalyst between the emerging diplomatic axis between African and South Asian countries at a conference on ‘De-colonisation, Development and Diaspora — The

Much water has flown down the Nile since the expulsion of Asians from Uganda in 1972. According to Kampala University Vice Chancellor B.D. Kateregga (below), Indian settlers in Uganda are no longer considered foreigners.

Afro-Indian experience’ in Panaji, Goa, on June 4.

“There is no border between India and Africa. There is only the Indian Ocean,” said Kampala University Vice Chancellor B.D. Kateregga.

Kateregga said Indian settlers in Uganda were no longer considered as those of “foreign origin” since 1995.

“Indians are now officially recognised as the 53rd tribe in Uganda. They are no longer considered foreigners,” he said, adding that Indian traders from the Gujarat region had engaged in trade with Africa long before Vasco Da Gama landed in India in 1498.

48

May - July 2012

Luis Neto Kiambata, Assistant to the President of Angola, said the Indian freedom struggle was a “signal which lit the flames of African consciousness”.

“This (Indian independence) cleared the way for others to advance their ideas contained in the framework of liberation and of defence of the social political and cultural identities to fight mercilessly against the process of colonisation that remained on the African, Asian, Latin American continents,” Kiambata said at the conference organised by the Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA), in partnership with the Goa Government.

Central Atlantic archipelago nation Cape Verde’s Culture Minister Mario Lucio Matias Sousa Mendes drew a distinct line of difference between colonialism in Creole island nations and colonialism of countries in the continent.

“In our islands we have the Creole (mixed cultures) factor. It was not a case of conventional colonialism where it was the black natives versus the white colonists. Creoles already had part of the colonists’ blood. And hence the nature of struggle was different and more layered,” Mendes said.

Mendes said that India had a great potential to play leader in the South-South co-operation movement. He said the shared cultural and colonial histories of the “southern” nations should make bilateral and multilateral co-operation between South-South nations possible.

“We were initially looking at Europe. All of Africa was looking at Europe. But we are realising slowly the potential of South-South co-operation. India, with its phenomenal growth is in the best position to lead and facilitate the shift,” Mendes said.

Ravi Bangar, Joint Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs said there was tremendous scope for growth in trade between India and Africa and that levels of engagement between India and other African countries were increasing substantially.

“Our focus of course is on human resource development and capacity building in African countries,” he said.

According to Commerce Minister Anand Sharma, India and African countries have decided to revise bilateral trade upwards to $90 billion by 2015. The target was earlier $70 billion.

Page48-53 News:page14-25 India-East Africa Relations.qxd 11/24/2012 4:52 PM Page 49

AFRICA QUARTERLY

India reaches out to South Sudan India wants Sudan and South Sudan to resolve all outstanding issues related to oil revenue-sharing, the contested border and citizenship

I

ndia is planning to invite South Sudan President Salva Kiir in a diplomatic outreach to build closer relations with the resource-rich country and secure its $3 billion investment across the two Sudans.

Amarendra Khatua, India’s special envoy, who returned after a second visit to Sudan and South Sudan — which broke away from Sudan last year to become an independent nation — mid-April, said on June 3 that he had recommended to the foreign office a visit by Kiir to India. Dates would be worked out through diplomatic channels, he said.

The visit will help consolidate India’s burgeoning relations with South Sudan, Africa’s newest country which was formally born on July 9, 2011 to become Africa’s 54th and the world’s 194th nation.

In his meetings with ministers and senior officials in Sudan’s capital Khartoum and South Sudan’s capital Juba, Khatua conveyed India’s support for the African Union roadmap and pushed for a presidential summit between leaders of the two countries to resolve all outstanding issues related to oil revenue-sharing, the contested border and citizenship.

South Sudan President Salva Kiir.

“We are for an Africa-led solution to African problems. This position was conveyed to both sides,” Khatua, Additional Secretary in India’s External Affairs Ministry, who has been designated as New Delhi’s envoy to Argentina, said.

The seven-point AU roadmap asks the two feuding countries to restart stalled negotiations in three months to reach an agreement to resolve all outstanding issues.

India has enjoyed sturdy multi-faceted relations with both Sudan and South Sudan, but has recently focused its energies on South Sudan, which is barely a year old and is in dire need of infrastructure and development.

India will do all it can to offer its assistance and technical know-how to that country, the Indian envoy said.

During Khatua’s second visit to Juba, India offered to set up a mobile refinery and launch a programme of electrification through solar panels, which will be developed along with the United Nations.

There was a note of urgency to Khatua’s visit as India fears that if a presidential summit is not held soon to resolve the festering issues, the continuing stand-off could spawn a full-scale humanitarian disaster for ordinary people on both sides of the border.

In an unusual diplomatic initiative, India had sent Khatua to talk to the leaders of the two countries first in March-end in the middle of a raging conflict over the transit fee. Since then, the conflict has worsened with South Sudan attacking the Heglig oil field last month and Sudan mounting a counter-operation to reclaim its territory.

This sent the alarm bells ringing in New Delhi as the fragile security situation threatened the interests of ONGC Videsh Limited (OVL), the overseas arm of India’s oil major, which has invested $3 billion in the oil industry spanning the two Sudans.

India’s OVL has a 25 per cent stake in the Greater Nile Petroleum Operating Company in which China National Petroleum Corporation has 40 percent stake, Malaysia’s Petronas has 25 percent and Sudapet of Sudan has five percent.

The conflict, specially after South Sudan shut down its entire oil production in retaliation for the non-payment of oil transit fee in February, is costing India $400,000 a day.

This translates into a loss of $600 million for OVL. — Manish Chand

May - July 2012

49

Page48-53 News:page14-25 India-East Africa Relations.qxd 11/24/2012 4:52 PM Page 50

NEWS

Battling the scourge of piracy Explaining different ways of fighting piracy, the Puntland President urged the concerned parties not to opt for ransom payment

A

gainst the backdrop of Somali pirates holding over 60 Indian sailors as hostages, the African country’s Puntland state has backed military operations to rescue them and to fight piracy, even as its President Abdirahman Mohammed Mohamud Farole visited India to work out a naval capacity building agreement.

“I always support the military operations to fight piracy,” Farole told reporters on the sidelines of an event he addressed at the Indian Council for World Affairs (ICWA) at Sapru House in New Delhi on May 15.

Puntland President Abdirahman Mohammed Mohamud Farole.

He was responding to queries if the Puntland government would support Indian military action to rescue its sailors held hostage by Somali pirates all along Somalia’s 3,300-km coast, of which 1,300 km fall in Puntland’s jurisdiction.

However, the feasibility of operations depended on the assessment of those forces wanting to take action. “If they ask for our support on the land, we can assist them,” he added.

Puntland is a semi-autonomous state in north-eastern Somalia, which is now witnessing credible governance under Farole after two decades of internal conflict.

However, Farole, a leading anti-piracy advocate, had a word of caution on the fight against the sea brigands.

50

May - July 2012

“If you don’t stop the option of ransom payment, you won’t stop piracy. That (ransom) encourages new recruits and that (piracy) never ends,” he said.

The other option to deter the pirates, according to the Puntland president, was to fight indirectly through other means such as denying access to the seas for the pirates and ensuring economic growth on the Somali coast that could offer youths alternative employment opportunities.

Though there were no ship held hostage in Puntland as of now, Farole admitted that pirates did escape into their territory “sometimes” from neighbouring areas when the government forces fight them on land.

“We are fighting them on the land, but we do not have support from the sea. We do not have the means to reach them in the sea. International forces off the shore do not want to hurt them because they are afraid the hostage may be hurt and that doesn’t work (in the anti-piracy fight),” he said.

The Puntland chief said he would discuss a military agreement with India, particularly in capacity building of its forces to fight piracy both on land and at sea.

“Yes, definitely. Training... mainly to support training,” he said to queries if a military agreement would be discussed with the Indian leaders. However, he added that his government does not allow any foreign military base in Puntland.

The Puntland president said he would like to win the fight against piracy and improve governance in Somalia.

“Ten years from now, I expect Somalia to be united and prosperous, and become a honourable part of the comity of nations,” he said.

Earlier, addressing a gathering of diplomats, former ambassadors and strategic affairs experts, Farole said his government was committed to do its utmost to safely release hostages held by pirates in the region, although most pirates had relocated outside Puntland.

“We believe that expensive naval patrols off the coast of Somalia cannot eradicate piracy alone, as long as the world continues to neglect the domestic conditions that produce piracy.”

He also noted that the costs and legal ramifications of piracy prosecutions in foreign countries is another obstacle. “These are problems that could be overcome by pursuing a new comprehensive approach to tackling piracy in full partnership with the Somali people and their institutions,” he added.

Page48-53 News:page14-25 India-East Africa Relations.qxd 11/24/2012 4:52 PM Page 51

AFRICA QUARTERLY

‘South-South cooperation is the future’ ...and India, with its phenomenal growth, is in the best position to lead and facilitate the shift, says Cape Verde Culture Minister

C

ape Verde, a sunny collective nesting of 10 picturesque islands in the Atlantic Ocean, 570 km off Africa, is shifting its eyes from Europe to countries like India which it hopes can show the way to Africa about the benefits of South-South cooperation.

“We were initially looking at Europe. All of Africa was looking at Europe. But we are realising slowly the potential of South-South cooperation. India, with its phenomenal growth, is in the best position to lead and facilitate the shift,” Cape Verde’s Culture Minister Mario Lucio Matias Sousa Mendes said on June 5.

He was attending a conference on Decolonisation, Development and Diaspora: The Afro-Indian Experience, organised by the Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA) and the Goa government.

Claiming that India had a great potential to play leader in South-South cooperation, Mendes said shared cultural and colonial histories of the “southern” nations should make possible bilateral and multilateral cooperation among them.

According to Cape Verde lore, more than a million Cape Verdeans have immigrated and followed the footsteps of the whale-hunter in the 1830s, who became the first islander to migrate from the island country.

“In fact we have more immigrants living abroad than the population of Cape Verde itself,” said Mendes.

Mendes said that the million-odd Cape Verdean immigrants were spread out across the United States, the Netherlands, Portugal and Senegal, while the estimated indigenous population of the island country was just a bit more than 500,000.

“Our immigrants are more than three to four generations old in the countries they migrated to. As Cape Verdeans we are known as hardworking and honest people.”

“It all started with the Cape Verdean fisherman who went whale hunting with some Portuguese sailors from the Azores region. He is supposed to have landed on the shores of the USA in the 1930s. He was our first immigrant,” Mendes said.

With tourism as one of the mainstay industries of the former Portuguese colony, what with its virgin beaches and warm tropical weather, Mendes said, tourism apart, one of the biggest contributors to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) came in the form of a

Cape Verde’s Culture Minister Mario Lucio Matias Sousa Mendes says shared cultural histories of the “southern” nations should pave way for bilateral cooperation.

consistent deluge of remittances from the immigrants.

“Remittances made by immigrants constitute 25 per cent of the money collected by the government treasury. We have strong family ties.”

“They send money back home. Build houses and have strong links to the home country,” said Mendes, adding that the culturally expressive immigrant population were the best ambassadors of tourism.

In fact last year, Cape Verde was the top ranked African country as regards per capita remittance, which was to the tune of $306 annually.

“We get a lot of tourists from Europe. Tourists from England, France, Germany and Portugal come to our country,” Mendes said.

In the first quarter this year, Cape Verde received 139,000 tourists.

— Mayabhushan Nagvenkar

May - July 2012

51

Page48-53 News:page14-25 India-East Africa Relations.qxd 11/26/2012 3:41 PM Page 52

NEWS

India’s Minister of State for External Affairs Preneet Kaur (left) and other dignitaries at the Africa Day celebrations in New Delhi on May 25.

‘We need stronger ties with Africa’ India’s Minister of State for External Affairs Preneet Kaur reaffirms India’s commitment to deepen partnership with Africa

T

oasting the African resurgence on the occasion of Africa Day on May 25, India underlined its commitment to build a stronger partnership with the 54nation continent that is increasingly finding its voice on the global stage.

“On Africa Day, we reaffirm our commitment to work together in partnership with Africa to realise our potential by building an even stronger relationship in an environment conducive to prosperity, peace, security and development for our peoples,” India’s Minister of State for External Affairs Preneet Kaur said in her Africa Day lecture at the Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA) at Sapru House in New Delhi.

Africa Day commemorates the founding of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) in Addis Ababa on May 25, 1963 and celebrates African unity. The OAU was succeeded by the African Union in 2002.

Taking note of the winds of resurgence sweeping the continent, Kaur said African continent was emerging strongly from decades of lost opportunities in the 1980s and 1990s.

“Economically, the African continent is marching ahead with several of its countries posting more than 7 percent growth rate. It is estimated that Africa as a whole will grow at about 5 percent over this second decade of

52

May - July 2012

the 21st Century, more than any other continent,” she said at the event attended by a large number of African diplomats.

Africa received $32 billion in foreign direct investment in 2010.

“Whether or not Africa’s growth will be rapid, one thing looks certain: Africa is on the rise and with its impressive human resource there is no reason that the continent cannot achieve the goals of development which it sets for itself,” said Kaur.

Alluding to the blossoming ties between India and Africa, Kaur spoke about how this historical relationship has “been revitalised in the 21st century.”

“Our political support for Africa has been augmented by strengthening capacity building, human resource development and closer economic cooperation including economic assistance, functional cooperation, soft loans and private sector investment,” she said.

Referring to the two summits India held with Africa in New Delhi in 2008 and in Addis Ababa in 2011, Kaur said two documents, the Addis Ababa Declaration and the Africa India Framework for Enhanced Cooperation, adopted at these summits would continue to guide multilayered engagement between the two sides in the coming years.

Page48-53 News:page14-25 India-East Africa Relations.qxd 11/24/2012 4:52 PM Page 53

AFRICA QUARTERLY

A feast of music, dance on Africa Day Artistes from India and Africa take centrestage to commemorate nearly half a decade of the continent’s resurgence on May 25

A

night filled with mesmerising dance and music marked Africa Day celebrations in the capital as artists from India and Africa took centrestage to commemorate 49 years of the continent’s resurgence on May 25.

The celebrations marked the 49th Africa Day and 10 years of the African Union (AU), previously known as the Organisation of African Unity (OAU).

The motive behind the event, at the Siri Fort Auditorium, was to build bridges between African and Indian youths, organisers said.

The evening saw unique performances by the Indian Ocean band, African dance group Horn of Africa, and children from a hip-hop group from Delhi named Slumgods, among others.

It started with a traditional dance called Dhaanto performed by Horn of Africa, a group of 10 young boys and girls from Somalia.

The dance was originally founded by the Somalians living in the Horn of Africa, an ancient land of Punt and the original homeland of the Pharaohs. The young boys and girls are currently studying at the University of Delhi.

“It’s our traditional dance and it originated in Egypt.

Mostly we dance Dhaanto at a wedding or any big celebration,” said 24-year-old Koffe from Somalia, a student at Delhi College of Arts and Commerce.

While the boys donned a white-coloured ensemble, the girls wore traditional, empire-line gowns teamed with a scarf on their heads for the performance.

“This is the first time that we are performing and celebrating Africa Day in Delhi. Last time we performed a Bollywood dance in Don Bosco School on the UN’s youth celebration. But we are happy that we are getting a chance to show our dance and tradition in India,” said Deqa from Somalia.

Organised in collaboration with Idea Works, “IndiaAfrica — A Shared Future” was a programme supported by Public Diplomacy Division of the External Affairs Ministry.

The evening also witnessed an Afro-Indian rock band Amazing Talents, who shared the stage with rock band Indian Ocean. ‘Amazing Talents’ consists of Flexy Emmanuel as vocalist, Osifo as lead guitarist, Anderson as sound producer and A- Jay on vocals.

Adding modern Afro flavour were the kids from a hip

(Top) A presentation by the Indian Ocean band at the Africa Day celebrations in New Delhi on May 25.

(Above) A dance troupe from Somalia performing on the occasion.

hop collective group named Slumgods. They performed with Indian Ocean on their famous number ‘Desh Mera’ from the movie Peepli Live.

“This is a unique idea, I really feel that these kind of events can spread more awareness about African culture and their music,” said Rahul, the bassist of Indian Ocean.

Republic of Congo’s Rio Des Djika, an 11-member band, brought the curtains down by performing Makossa, a traditional music form. They played Bollywood number from the movie Saajan — showcasing a perfect India-Africa connect.

May - July 2012

53

Page54-61 Business:page14-25 India-East Africa Relations.qxd 11/24/2012 4:51 PM Page 54

DOING BUSINESS

India’s Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma (centre) led a 200-member delegation to Ghana in July.

India to invest in Ghana’s oil sector Aim is to double the trade with West Africa to $40 billion by 2015

I

ndia is seeking to invest in Ghana’s oil and gas sector and double the trade with West Africa to $40 billion by 2015 as part of its growing efforts to play a larger role in the development of Africa as a whole.

“We have a keen interest in Ghana’s developing hydrocarbon sector and would discuss this and other sectors for close cooperation,” India’s Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma said after opening an Indian trade expo in Accra on July 9.

Ghana, which started oil production in January 2010 and partners with the UK Tullow Oil in the country’s Jubilee oil fields, has announced that it would peak production to about 120,000 barrels next year. Ghana currently produces about 70,000 barrels of oil a day.

Sharma, leading a 200-member trade delegation, the biggest to any African country, emphasized the need for deepening and diversifying India’s economic engagements with West African countries.

“What we have achieved with trade between India and the West Africa region, it is possible to double the current figure of $20 million over the next three years,” Sharma said.

Ghana’s Trade and Industry Minister Hannah Tetteh said cooperation between India and Africa was “rooted in good relationship, and that, there are opportunities of growth across the African continent.”

She said the decision to hold the India Show in Ghana was a demonstration of faith in the country’s economy.

“This is a good time to invest in Ghana because the

54

May - July 2012

country’s gross domestic product (GDP) grew at 14 percent last year.

“In addition, there is good prognosis for growth and we intend to keep it so because Ghana is the most stable country in the West Africa region,” she added.

Tetteh said investments from Indian companies in Ghana has increased over the past few years. Sharma also said the pan-African e-project was “one of the shining examples of cooperation between our people”.

Under the project, 47 countries across Africa, have been linked up through the Internet and 15 universities have been linked up with their counterparts in India. “The entire project is without cost or burden to Africa, Sharma said adding, “This is what we believe in and we are not just looking for resources because we believe in investment.”

He said India looks at the other needs of its partners and does this by empowering its people. “Within the past three years, India has educated over 20,000 Africans in its institutions.”

The expo was jointly organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

ECOWAS comprises Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Côte d’Ivoire, the Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, GuineaBissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo along with Cameroon, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Mauritania, São Tome and Principe and the Republic of Congo.

— Francis Kokutse

Page54-61 Business:page14-25 India-East Africa Relations.qxd 11/24/2012 4:51 PM Page 55

AFRICA QUARTERLY

Africa invites Indian investment in agriculture Zambia, Ethiopia and Mozambique have sought investment from India in agriculture

The investor-friendly climate in the continent is an advantage for investors.

A

frican nations like Zambia, Ethiopia and Mozambique invited Indian investors to invest in various sectors, especially in agriculture, saying this has the potential to provide food to both Africa and India.

Diplomats from the three countries showcased the immense potential of the African countries and urged Indian investors to take advantage of the investor-friendly climate and a host of incentives they were offering.

They were addressing a session on “Doing business with African countries” organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in Hyderabad on June 21.

The diplomats told the investors that by investing in their respective countries, they (the investors) can also reach out to markets in the entire Africa, Middle East and European Union.

With vast unutilised arable land, best agro-climatic conditions, a stable political system and investment incentives including 100 percent repatriation of profit, the African countries offer huge business opportunities to Indian investors, they said.

The diplomats said African nations were ideal destination for investment for Indian investors given the commonalities between India and Africa.

Susan Sikaneta, High Commissioner of Zambia, said Indians with their good knowledge of agriculture, expertise and technology should come forward to invest in agriculture in Zambia, which was offering land and other incentives on first come, first served basis.

The central African country has 43 million hectares of land but only six million is being currently used.

“Chinese are coming in big numbers but we love Indians to come. You have passion for Africa. You are not like other countries which are interested only in making money,” she said advising investors not to miss the opportunity.

Support small farmers to end hunger in Africa: Report

GIVING MORE policy support to smallscale farmers could be one of the most effective ways to end hunger in Africa, a report by two international groups has said.

The report — co-released by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) — is titled “Reducing the Risk of Food and Nutrition Insecurity among Vulnerable Populations”, Xinhua reported on May 16.

It called on aid organisations to earmark a percentage of aid money and donations for resilience-building efforts and programming, improved coordination of data and early warning systems amongst humanitarian actors, and scaling up safety nets and improving coordination between global donors and local actors.

IFRC Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Diplomacy Goli Ameri said concrete steps must be taken to enable Africa to feed itself and end hunger, including better access to finance and insurance, especially for women who make up the majority of small-scale food producers.

He said improved trade policies at national, regional and continental levels and sustained investment in irrigation agriculture were also needed.

IFPRI Director General Fan Shenggen said that almost one billion people worldwide were still under-nourished and building the resilience of vulnerable communities in the longer term was essential to eliminating chronic food insecurity.

May - July 2012

55

Page54-61 Business:page14-25 India-East Africa Relations.qxd 11/24/2012 4:51 PM Page 56

DOING BUSINESS

More free trade pacts on the way New Delhi is exploring possibilities of entering into free trade pacts with regional groupings of African countries, says Indian minister

India’s Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Jyotiraditya Scindia.

I

ndia is exploring possibilities of entering into free trade pacts with regional groupings of African countries such as the 19-nation Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), Minister of State for Commerce and Industry Jyotiraditya Scindia said on May 15.

“A joint working group has been constituted with COMESA for examining the feasibility of a free trade

agreement or preferential trade agreement between India and COMESA,” Scindia said at an event organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in New Delhi.

COMESA is the largest regional grouping in Africa comprising of 19 countries including Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mauritius, Sudan and Zimbabwe.

“We are exploring possibilities of entering into such agreements with other African regional economic communities like the East Africa Community and Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS),” Scindia said.

He said India was holding negotiations also with the Southern African Customs Union for a preferential trade agreement covering trade in goods.

Forged in 1910, the five-member Southern African Customs Union (SACU) comprising South Africa, Botswana, Lesotho, Namibia and Swaziland, is the world’s oldest customs union.

Scindia said India was also negotiating a comprehensive economic cooperation and partnership agreement with Mauritius. The deal will cover trade in goods, services and investment.

The minister said India has already signed 10 free trade agreements and seven more such agreements were under consideration. Five limited-scope preferential trade agreements are also in the process.

“When completed, such agreements would cover over a hundred countries spread across five continents.”

‘Africa and India have to learn from each other’ INDIA AND Africa must leverage their strengths to make the most of their demographic dividend, a leading South African educationist says.

“Countries in Africa and India have to learn from each other and work together to ensure that we draw the maximum benefits out of their demographic dividend,” said Jonathan Cook Jonathan Cook, Executive Director of South Africa’s Gordon Institute of Business Science, who led an Association of African Business Schools (AABS) delegation to India.

At an interactive session in Chandigarh, Punjab, on June 10, AABS

56

May - July 2012

members pledged their support to INDIAFRICA: A Shared Future, a people-to-people contact and youth outreach programme being run by theIdeaWorks, a New Delhi based communication design and strategy firm, with support from the External Affairs Ministry.

Speaking on the occasion, Edward Mungai, Dean of Kenya’s Strathmore Edward Mungai Business School, said: “The success of the INDIAFRICA initiative will depend on successfully building and managing networks to enable sharing of knowledge and best practices and collaborative entrepreneurship between African countries and India.”

Page54-61 Business:page14-25 India-East Africa Relations.qxd 11/24/2012 4:51 PM Page 57

AFRICA QUARTERLY

India offers $100 million to Nigeria India is offering a helping hand to Nigeria in the country’s bid to generate enough electricity to meet ever-growing demand

I

ndia is offering a helping hand to Nigeria in the country’s bid to generate enough electricity to meet the evergrowing demand in Africa’s most populous nation.

Of an estimated $500 billion that the sector needs to improve, India has committed a $100 million line of credit under a memorandum of understanding to be signed soon.

National Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) Commissioner Eyo Epko says the power sector will need an average of $20 billion per annum to achieve 7,500 MW generation, excluding domestic gas investments. In addition, the country would need $500 billion investment to guarantee constant supply. The country would also require the right skills of professionals and this is being provided by India.

Speaking at a ceremony to inaugurate a plant for the manufacture and repair of power transmission equipment, Indian High Commissioner Mahesh Sachdev said: “We have also been engaged in supporting the Nigerian power sector through professional capacity building in India under our ITEC training programme.”

The training of these professionals is very important, Epko said, because more investment would be recorded by 2017. He was optimistic that the state governments would develop the capacity to regulate market operations within their boundaries.

More investments means more business for foreign companies keen on developing the sector. Sachdev said 12 Indian companies had expressed keen interest in the ongoing power privatisation programme. India, which is Nigeria’s second largest trading partner, “has both the capacity and expertise to support Nigeria’s ambitious development plans in the power sector”, Sachdev added.

He commended the Skipper Group, an Indian company that has a long association with Nigeria. “Unlike many other foreign concerns which are content to execute projects on tactical basis, India’s Skipper Group has over the past decade invested in this country to create manufacturing and repair capacity, transfer of technology and generate employment.”

“The Group has shown its faith in Nigeria’s power sector and is planning to expand its operations here from transmission to power generation and other areas of economic activity in Nigeria,” Sachdev added.

Participation in the sector by such foreign companies is a welcome news to Nigerians. Ekpo said there is the need to attract private investors to the sector to remove key

challenges such as corruption and poor management. In addition there are some bottlenecks that are yet to be removed.

Ekpo identified the absence of a cost-reflective tariff as a key reason. “Why the power sector has failed to serve Nigerians in the past three decades,” he said, adding: “Without a cost-reflective tariff, no utility provider will enter the market.”

Power Minister Bart Nnaji admitted that there was a

Nigeria’s power sector needs an estimated $500 bn.

“gross” deficit in the country’s electricity tariff but hoped that reforms in the sector would help correct this. “We know there are gross deficits but just give us a chance and you will see power grow in the country,” he added.

Nnaji said the government was preparing to inaugurate power plants in some designated locations that would boost electricity output in the country. Some people have doubts on the government’s proposal because of past experiences.

Trade Union Congress President Peter Esele said the government last December promised to increase power generation by 4,000 MW but there was no explanation as to why this target was not met. “We have not also been told what happened to the huge expenditure on that sector so that we understand their challenges and why it was not met.

— Francis Kokutse

May - July 2012

57

Page54-61 Business:page14-25 India-East Africa Relations.qxd 11/24/2012 4:51 PM Page 58

DOING BUSINESS

Indian hand in Africa’s cotton industry New Delhi has pledged $4.66 million for the development of the cotton industry across the African continent

I

Notwithstanding the low producndia has set in motion a $4.66 miltion, he said, “African cotton is lion programme to develop the cotperceived to be of higher quality than ton industry across the African concotton from many competing origins tinent, which has faced a combination and to have fewer neps because of of problems over the years. hand picking. However, African The plan would initially cover cotton has a strongly negative perseven countries across the continent, ception for contamination and delays S.K. Makhijani, Economic Counsellor in delivery linked to poor roads, in the Indian High Commission in railroads and ports.”

Abuja, Nigeria, said.

“Furthermore, most African cotThe seven countries are Benin, ton is still hand-classed, while comNigeria, Chad, Burkina Faso, Mali, peting exporters make full use of Malawi and Uganda, Makhijani said, high volume instruments (HVI). adding: “The entire project is valued at However, the greatest challenge for $4.66 million and it covers the threeAfrican cotton is its declining interyear period from January 2012 to national competitiveness due to December 2014.” declining yields,” Plastin said.

Experts claim that African pro- Most African cotton is still hand“World cotton production ducers have not been able to improve classed, while other exporters make full use of high volume instruments. increased from 13.8 mn tonnes in their production over the past few 1980-81 to 24.9 mn tonnes in 2010-11 decades. Alejandro Plastin, an and is expected to reach 26.8 mn tonnes in current season, economist of the International Cotton Advisory Council as a reaction to the record prices observed last season.”

(ICAC), said African cotton production declined from a Some experts say Africa has the potential to raise peak of two million tonnes in 2004-05 to just a million production to three million tonnes by 2020. Thus, there tonnes in the three seasons up to last year. will be opportunities for income growth in the “African cotton accounted for seven percent of world African cotton sector if yields and logistics can be cotton production at its peak, while it accounts for only five improved. percent now,” Plastin added.

Indian firm bags township project in Rwanda

L

eading Indian realty firm Synergy Property Development Services Ltd bagged, through international bidding, a $153-million township development project in the central African country of Rwanda.

As a global project management consulting and turnkey solution provider, the Bangalore-based Synergy will undertake design and project management of Rwanda Social Security Board (RSSB) to build three townships in Rwandan capital Kigali, which has one million population.

“The Rwandan project will demonstrate our leadership in the real estate space and usher in a new growth path for us in the region. Africa is land of opportunities

58

May - July 2012

for housing and office space development work,” said Synergy Chairman Sankey Prasad in a statement in Bangalore on June 25.

The ambitious project consists of first developing a 157-acre “Vision City” township in Kigali with semidetached units, luxurious homes, apartments, educational facilities and town centre, including shopping malls, administrative block, public transport terminus, recreation facilities and playgrounds.

“The other two townships at Kinyinya and Batsinda in Kigali will have a total of 700 apartments spread across 250 acres with support infrastructure, including civic amenities, for leading a quality life,” Prasad said.

Page54-61 Business:page14-25 India-East Africa Relations.qxd 11/24/2012 4:51 PM Page 59

AFRICA QUARTERLY

Tata expands into Nigerian market Tata Communications has extended its Video Connect Network to Nigeria through a partnership with Main One Cable Company

I

ndia’s leading telephony provider Tata Communications has extended its Video Connect Network (VCN) to Nigeria through a partnership with Main One Cable Company, Nigeria’s premier provider of broadband Internet services.

A statement issued by Main One in Lagos on July 27 said the VCN service would allow broadcast and production companies in Nigeria to distribute their live content worldwide as well as enhance international broadcasters’ reach into this key emerging region.

“Following increasing demand for high-quality video capability in and out of Nigeria, Tata Communications, in partnership with Main One, connects its global video network to an expansive local fibre network, creating a dedicated video network connecting to key broadcasters as well as production and post-production houses in Africa,” the statement added.

It said VCN offers new levels of scalability and bandwidth supported by Tata Communications’ round-theworld, wholly-owned, sub-sea fibre network and Main One’s cable between Europe and West Africa.

Genius Wong, Senior Vice President, Global Network Services, Tata Communications, said: “At Tata

Communications we have always focused on giving our media customers access to key media hotspots for delivery of broadcast quality video for contribution and distribution across the globe.”

“This extension of Video Connect reach, together with our existing presence in South Africa and our global Video network, will further enhance the value proposition for our customers, allowing the distribution of premium broadcast quality content into and out of Africa,” he added.

This expansion of the reach of Tata Communications’ Video Connect Network in Africa compliments its South African Video Connect presence, via its subsidiary company, Neotel.

Tata Steel looks to Africa for growth TATA STEEL is turning to Asia and Africa for growth as its European operation would stay stressed from an steep decline in demand following the economic downturn in the developed world, especially the European Union.

“Steel plants are being closed or mothballed to conserve costs and to control oversupply,” Chairman Ratan Tata said in a statement in the company’s annual report, referring the fall in steel consumption in the West.

“By contrast, the demand for steel is still buoyant in Asia and Africa where growth rates and investment levels are higher than the West and where new sources of iron ore and coking coal are being developed,” he said.

Tata steel has coal mining asset in Mozambique. It is planning to set up a plant in Vietnam. The company has operations in China and

Thailand. Tata said by 2014, the company would have a global capacity of 33.5 million tonnes adding another three million tonnes on full implementation of the Odisha project.

Tata Steel’s new 6 million tonne per annum plant in Odisha is under construction.

The 2.9 million tonne expansion project in Jamshedpur is likely to go on stream this fiscal, taking the plant’s capacity to 9.7 million tonnes.

According to him, the demand for steel in India remains robust and, in fact, continues to outstrip supply.

“Unfortunately, major greenfield projects which would substantially increase domestic steel capacity are facing enormous delays due to hurdles in land acquisitions and approvals for the necessary mining rights to feed these new plants.”

May - July 2012

59

Page54-61 Business:page14-25 India-East Africa Relations.qxd 11/24/2012 4:51 PM Page 60

DOING BUSINESS

SA woos frequent Indian travellers South African Tourism is focusing on high-income-level segments, which include young family adventurers and seasoned leisure seekers

W

ith more and more Indian tourists going to South Africa, the country’s national tourism agency is focussing on tapping three highincome segments, a senior official said.

“We are focussing on three segments with high-income levels and who travel frequently,” said Hanneli Slabber, Country Manager, South African Tourism.

“The segments we are looking at are young couples with dependent children (young family adventurers); young singles/couples with no children seeking adventure tourism (social explorers); and middle-aged couples who travel frequently and stay in five-star hotels (seasoned leisure seekers),” she said on June 20.

South African Tourism is responsible for marketing the country as a preferred tourist destination.

A study on Indian tourists notes that an annual income of `1.6 million ($28,500) is the threshold level for households to participate in long-haul leisure travel.

As per the report, there are around 2.3 million Indians adults who would qualify for the over `1.6 million income per annum category. According to the report, there are 528,000 Indians who would fall under the three focus categories of the agency.

Typical Indian tourists to South Africa are men aged between 25 and 34 who stayed for nearly 25 days.

“The number of Indian tourists to South Africa has been increasing steadily over the last five years. In 2011, the total number of Indians who visited South Africa was 90,367. The target for this year is over 100,000,” Slabber said.

She said typical Indian tourists to South Africa were men aged between 25 and 34 who stayed there for around 25 days.

A majority of the Indian tourists to the African country are first timers; they travel alone and on business.

Airtel revenue rises in Africa

I

ndia’s Bharti Airtel on May 2 reported a 16 percent growth in revenue in its Africa operations at $1.2 billion during the quarter ended March 31 over the like period of the previous financial year.

The company’s customer base in the African market crossed 53 million mark with the addition of 2.2 million customers during the quarter under review.

“Revenues from Africa continued to growth, despite a national strike in Nigeria which lasted nine days,” the company said in a statement.

Manoj Kohli, the company’s chief executive for international operations, said the goal to achieve $5 billion in revenue from the African operations in the current financial year remains “intact”.

During the quarter ended March 31, the company incurred a capital expenditure of $254 million on the African operations.

Airtel also launched its operations in Rwanda, expanding its footprint to 17 countries in the African continent.

60

May - July 2012

Kenya Airways launches NairobiDelhi flight TO CAPTURE the growing traffic between India and Africa, Kenya Airways on May 16 launched a direct Nairobi-New Delhi flight with oneway fare of `22,000-`28,000.

“We have waited long to start this route. We are confident this flight will be very profitable. We are focusing on Asia and India in particular,” Evanson Mwaniki, Chairman of Kenya Airways, told IANS. New Delhi is the 57th destination for the airline.

“We are waiting for (new) aircraft including nine Boeing 787 Dreamliner.

As soon as we get them, we will deploy them on various new routes including India,” said an official.

Page54-61 Business:page14-25 India-East Africa Relations.qxd 11/24/2012 4:51 PM Page 61

AFRICA QUARTERLY

Ranbaxy boosts presence in Africa with malaria drug The drug has a high cure rate of over 95 percent and provides quick relief

India’s Minister for Health and Family Welfare Ghulam Nabi Azad (centre right) launching the anti malaria drug. The then Minister for Science and Technology and Earth Sciences Vilasrao Deshmukh is also seen in the picture.

L

eading Indian drug manufacturer Ranbaxy Laboratories has boosted its presence in the emerging market of Africa, introducing its new malariafighting drug Synriam and setting up manufacturing facilities in Morocco, Nigeria and South Africa.

The arrival of the Synriam drug has come as a boon for many in a continent plagued by malaria. The drug provides quick relief from most malaria-related symptoms, including fever, and has a high cure rate of over 95 per cent.

“It is among the best options available today,” said Sudershan Arora, President, Research and Development (R&D), of the Indian unit of Japanese Daiichi Sankyo company.

Ranbaxy officials say the new drug has been approved by the Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) for marketing in India and conforms to the recommendations of the World Health Organization (WHO) for using combination therapy in malaria.

The officials said phase-III clinical trials for the drug conducted in India, Bangladesh and Thailand “successfully demonstrated the efficacy and tolerability of Synriam as comparable to the combination of artemether

and lumefantrine.” The company officials said they were working to make this new treatment available in African, Asian and South American markets where malaria is rampant.

Opening the Moroccan facility last month, the company said the new manufacturing facility in Casablanca has paved the way for a direct business presence in North Africa.

The opening followed the successful audit of the facility by the Moroccan Health Authorities. With this, the company hopes to tap into a $1 billion pharmaceutical market in Morocco.

In addition to servicing the Morocco market, Ranbaxy also plans to extend the supply from this manufacturing unit to other African countries in the coming years.

In addition to Morocco, the company now has two other manufacturing facilities in Africa located in Nigeria and South Africa. “With five subsidiaries, five representative offices and a strong workforce of nearly a 1,000 people, Ranbaxy’s distribution network caters to 44 of the 54 countries in this continent,” the company said in a statement.

— Francis Kokutse

Carborundum takes over African subsidiary

A

brasives major Carborundum Universal Ltd (CUMI) on June 19 announced the signing of a binding agreement with Austrian company RHI to acquire the latter’s wholly-owned fused minerals subsidiary RHI Isithebe Ltd as well as the plant of RHI Refractories Africa, all located in South Africa.

The acquisition will be by CUMI’s wholly owned investment subsidiary CUMI International Ltd, Cyprus.

“The whole deal is expected to get over in four weeks time and the deal size will be announced then. The acquisition will be funded by internal accruals,” S. Dhanvanth Kumar, vice president and company secretary, said.

“Following the transfer, the company will be renamed

as Thugela Refractories, Isithebe so as to retain the local sentiments than imposing the CUMI brand,” Kumar noted.

RHI Isithebe is one of the largest fused mineral manufacturing facilities in Africa. CUMI is a fully vertically integrated abrasives, electro-minerals,ceramics, refractory company with operations in Australia, Canada, China, India, Middle East, Russia, South Africa, Thailand and the US. On the rationale for the recent South African acquisition, Kumar said: "The company focuses on steel industry and has technology for that sector. CUMI's Indian operations would benefit from the transfer of that technical expertise."

May - July 2012

61

Page62-65 Books:page14-25 India-East Africa Relations.qxd 11/24/2012 4:53 PM Page 62

BOOKS & IDEAS

LITERATURE

THE WEST RAND JIVE CATS BOXING CLUB

By Lauren Liebenberg, ; 288pp, UK; VIRAGO; Paperback; £7.99

For all of us there comes a fall, a loss of innocence — a time after which we are never again the same. For twelveyear-old Tommy and Chris, growing up on the mines of Johannesburg, that time came in 1958. Goaded by the pulse of Elvis, Little Richard and the kwela kwela rhythms of the black ghettos, these young jive cats of the West Rand Cons Mine look to prove their grit on the slum-yard dance floors and in the sweat-soaked ring of the boxing club, run by the enigmatic and wise Jock McGinty.

This is a poignant, compelling story about the endurance of friendship, and about coming of age in South Africa at a time that was at once charmed and cruel.

MARGINAL SPACES: Reading Ivan Vladislavic This edited volume collects much of the significant and original critical material, ranging from reviews to interviews to full length articles, so far published on Vladislavic’s individual works.

Includes examples of the initial reception of each of Vladislavic’s books upon their publication. Not only a critical celebration of Vladislavic via a sense of the reception of his works, but also a sense of how literary and cultural production and reading have changed since the end of apartheid via a collection of the original interpretive directions.

By Gerald Gaylard (Ed.); 376pp, South Africa; Witwatersrand University Press; Paperback; £27.99

THE BLIND FISHERMAN

Photography

By Mia Couto; 272pp, UK. Penguin Books; Paperback; £9.99

62

By Richard Vokes (Ed.); 288pp; UK; James Currey Publishers; Hardback; £40

May - July 2012

A compilation of Mia Couto’s early short stories — as first presented to the English-speaking world in his two collections: Voices Made Night (1990) and Every Man is a Race (1994).

It was in these collections that Mia Couto first announced himself as a writer of international importance, constructing stories that blended the unique history of Mozambique with a magic realism that both transcended and was inspired by the legacy of Portuguese colonialism and the subsequent civil war.

PHOTOGRAPHY IN AFRICA: Ethnographic Perspectives This collection of studies in African photography examines, through a series of empirically rich historical and ethnographic cases, the variety of ways in which pho-

Page62-65 Books:page14-25 India-East Africa Relations.qxd 11/24/2012 4:53 PM Page 63

AFRICA QUARTERLY

CHASING THE LEOPARD FINDING THE LION Sons of revolutionaries, a classic Huck Finn/Tom Sawyer duo must grow up and find themselves when President-for-Life Robert Mugabe tightens his grip on white landowners and plunges Zimbabwe into anarchy.

Debut novel — part broad trip, part familial tragi-comedy, which focuses on two racially blended families as they outwit the world of diplomats, ex-pats, safari tourists, street rats, border guards, and the often hostile landscape.

By Julie Wakeman Linn; 332pp, Tanzania; Mkuki Na Nyota Publishers; Paperback; £24.95

THE DARK CHILD: The Autobiography of an African Boy

By Camara Laye; 140pp, South Africa; Penguin; Paperback; £9.99

A vivid and graceful memoir of Camara Laye’s youth in the village of Kouroussa, French Guinea, a place steeped in mystery. Laye marvels over his mother’s supernatural powers, his father’s distinction as the village goldsmith, and his own passage into manhood, which is marked by animistic beliefs and bloody rituals. Eventually, he must choose between this unique place and the academic success that lures him to distant cities.

More than autobiography of one boy, this is the universal story of sacred traditions struggling against the encroachment of a modern world. Translated from the French by James Kirkup.

MEMOIRS OF A PORCUPINE Outlandish, surreal and compelling, a murderous porcupine tells all. When Kibandi, a boy living in a Congolese village, reaches the age of eleven, his father takes him out into the night, and forces him to drink a vile liquid from a jar which has been hidden for years in the earth.

This is his initiation and, from this point on, he, and his double, a porcupine, become murderers, attacking neighbours, fellow villagers, and anyone unfortunate enough to cross their path. But now Kibandi is dead, and the porcupine, free of his master, is free to tell their story at last.

tographs are produced, circulated, and engaged across a range of social contexts. In so doing, it elucidates the distinctive characteristics of African photographic practices and cultures, vis-à-vis those of other forms of 'vernacular photography' worldwide.

In addition, these studies develop a reflexive turn,

By Alain Mabanckou; 224pp, UK; Serpent’s Tail; Paperback; £8.99

examining the history of academic engagement with these African photographic cultures, and reflecting on the distinctive qualities of the ethnographic method as a means for studying such phenomena. The volume critically engages current debates in African photography and visual anthropology.

May - July 2012

63

Page62-65 Books:page14-25 India-East Africa Relations.qxd 11/24/2012 4:53 PM Page 64

BOOKS & IDEAS

ECONOMY & POLITICS

THE AFRICANA WORLD: From Fragmentation to Unity and Renaissance

by MammoMuchie, Sanya Osha & Matlotleng Matlou (Eds.); 364pp, South Africa; Institute of South Africa; Paperback; £29.95

Wide-ranging essays that address colonial and postcolonial African realities with a view to present a holistic and transcontinental appraisal of questions, issues and challenges that confront the continent. Contributors are drawn from different parts of the world — Africa, Europe and the Americas — and it is this eclectic range of scholarly views that lends a rich historicity to the meaning of Africanity.

The book contains multidisciplinary and transdisciplinary engagements with Africa’s rich cultural heritage, its lingering contemporary challenges, its multifaceted systems of knowledge and its future in the context of the twenty-first century.

AMBIGUOUS PLEASURES: Sexuality and Middle Class Self-perceptions in Nairobi By focusing on public debates and their preoccupations with issues of African heritage, gerontocratic power relations, and conventional morality on the one hand, and personal sexual relationships, intimacy, and self-perceptions on the other, this study works out the complexities of sexuality and culture in the context of modernity in an African society.

It moves beyond an investigation of a health or development perspective of sexuality and instead examines desire, pleasure, and eroticism.

By Rachel Spronk; 344pp, UK; Berghahn; Hardback ; £65

COLD WAR IN SOUTHERN AFRICA: White Power, Black Liberation In the aftermath of European decolonization, the struggle UTAFANYA NINI?

By Chisato Kubo & Hayato Ito; 32pp; TANZANIA; Mkuki Na Nyota Publishers; Paperback; £10.95

By Tatah Mentan; 254pp, Cameroon; Langaa RPCIG; Paperback; £24.95

64

May - July 2012

between white minority governments and black liberation movements encouraged both sides to appeal for external support from the two superpower blocs.

This collection highlights the importance of the global ideological environment on the perceptions and consequent behaviour of the white minority regimes, the Black Nationalist movements, and the newly-independent African nationalist governments.

SOCIALISM: The Only Practical Alternative to Contemporary Capitalism Argues from a Cameroonian perspective that contemporary capitalism now dominates every major sector of the world economy.

Page62-65 Books:page14-25 India-East Africa Relations.qxd 11/24/2012 4:53 PM Page 65

AFRICA QUARTERLY

THE UNBEARABLE WHITENESS OF BEING: Farmers Voices from Zimbabwe The history of colonial land alienation, the grievances fuelling the liberation war, and post-Independence land reforms have all been grist to the mill of recent scholarship on Zimbabwe. Rory Pilossof’s examination of farmers voices reveals continuities as well as breaks in their relationships with land, belonging and race.

His focus on the Liberation War, Operation Gukurahundi and the post-2000 land invasions frames a nuanced understanding of how white farmers engaged with the land and its peoples, and the political changes of the past 40 years.

By Rory Pilossof; 282pp, Zimbabwe; Weaver Press; Paperback; £22.95

WITCHCRAFT AND COLONIAL RULE IN KENYA, 1900-1955

By Katherine Luongo; 116pp, UK; Cambridge University Press; Hardback; £60.00

Focusing on colonial Kenya, this book shows how conflicts between state authorities and Africans over witchcraftrelated crimes provided an important space in which the meanings of justice, law and order in the empire were debated.

Katherine Luongo discusses the emergence of imperial networks of knowledge about witchcraft. She then demonstrates how colonial concerns about witchcraft produced an elaborate body of jurisprudence about capital crimes.

READING REVOLUTION: Shakespeare on Robben Island The prison

authorities on Robben Island displayed a remarkable obsession with censoring the news that prisoners could receive of the outside world. Yet, as this book reveals, political prisoners managed to escape these constraints through literature.

As the prisoners brought their experiences to bear on the text, the works of Shakespeare were mined for their anti-colonial and anti-apartheid inspirations as much as for the power and beauty of their words.

The social and environmental costs of contemporary capitalism are prohibitive. The global megatrends of rising inequality and absolute poverty, political instability, and global climate change — all com-pounded and accelerated by this predatory mode of production — are adversely affecting the lives and threatening the future

By Ashwin Desai; 144pp, South Africa; Unisa Press; Paperback; £36.99

of every inhabitant of nations and the entire world.

In view of these megatrends and the current global economic crisis, the conclusion that contemporary capitalism does not serve the interests of the vast majority of the people on the planet and is both economically and environmentally unsustainable, is self-evident.

May - July 2012

65

Page66-75 Documents:page14-25 India-East Africa Relations.qxd 11/24/2012 4:55 PM Page 66

DOCUMENTS

An Asian century

W

e live during what has been called an Asian Century. This title was used by some academics in the international arena but today it is used mostly by Asians! Over the last few decades, Asian nations, including India, launched themselves along high-growth trajectories that have led to a discernible eastward shift of global political and economic centres of gravity.

This has increased their weight and profile in international relations and enhanced their capacity to influence global events. Hence the new slogan. But this has also created unprecedented challenges for policy makers and strategic establishments that have to grapple with difficult and often unfamiliar problems.

One is the need to put in place policies and measures that make the trajectory of high-growth sustainable over time. Historical experience suggests caution in accepting projections of continuous growth. The second is the need to deal with an inevitable backlash. Shifts in the global balance are not necessarily welcome to those at the losing end even if they only lose in relative terms. The determined effort to choke our growth through environmental norms and regulations is an example.

These are challenges that cannot be overcome by any one organisation. Multiple strands of thought, multiple perspectives and multiple courses of action have to be taken into account and woven together into composite solutions. “India’s Neighbourhood: Challenges in the Next Two Decades” — the document that is being launched today, needs to be viewed in this perspective.

It is in many respects a path-breaking document that is the first output of the MEA-IDSA Strategic and Perspective Planning Research Group. This group is itself the product of a sustained effort by MEA and by IDSA to draw upon the best available talent in the country to peer beyond the immediate policy and time horizon. In this report, independent researchers, with the full support of MEA and IDSA have made an effort to find out what lies, in military parlance, on “the other side of the hill”.

The intention is to focus attention on the challenging policy environment in our immediate neighbourhood.

The intention is also to provoke a debate, and hopefully a lively debate, both within India and beyond its borders.

We hope to generate ideas and solutions. We hope that we will be able to think out of the box. Mostly, we hope that this debate will allow MEA to find ways to strengthen, in practical terms, its forward-looking and proactive approach to engaging with our neighbours.

The promotion of a politically stable and economical-

66

May - July 2012

India’s Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai speaking at the launch of IDSA Report ‘India’s Neighbourhood: Challenges in the Next Two Decades’ on July 13.

ly secure periphery is a paramount foreign policy objective for India. This is essential to deal with the challenges of fostering sustainable growth and to ensure that regional differences cannot be exploited by those who would keep us absorbed in disputes. We have been hard at work in fostering inter-connectivity and mutual confidence in multiple areas, in promoting trade and investment, and in trying to leverage India’s rapid economic growth into win-win arrangements with our neighbours.

We are also conscious of the currents of globalization and of the need to take advantage of global trends in political economy. We believe that common South Asian interests must factor in the policy-making process of South Asian nations. A South Asian Economic Union is a distant dream; but even an expanded set of economic connections will not only transform the economies of South Asia but will be a force for political stability.

I would be stating the obvious in reiterating that there are very few areas of the world where the benefits or logic of regional cooperation are as obvious as in South

Page66-75 Documents:page14-25 India-East Africa Relations.qxd 11/24/2012 4:55 PM Page 67

AFRICA QUARTERLY Asia. But it is also a fact that there are very few regions where the challenges in creating the structures for regional cooperation are so daunting.

This places South Asian problems in a peculiarly difficult position. Even as we attempt to surmount the challenges that history has imposed upon us, we are being called upon to confront a new generation of problems, the problems of the 21st century.

For example, the difficulties in demarcating borders are now accompanied by a completely different set of issues that arise from the growing irrelevance of borders in a globalized world. Demographic trends are producing a South Asia that is young and has high expectations.

The so-called demographic dividend, if not managed properly, can turn into a demographic nightmare.

Governments that are unable to cope with these expectations will turn their nations into “fragile” or “weak” states that will create challenges of the kind the international community is already struggling to cope with. The dividing line between terrorists and transnational criminals is disappearing and access to technology is increasing the dangers that they pose.

Even as South Asian nations struggle to bridge their internal digital divides, they have to divert resources to foil cyber-criminals who operate in a virtual world.

One of the major issues identified by the report is the rapidity with which change is taking place in South Asia.

Policy makers and practitioners operate in an environment where the unexpected is the norm. Policy and responses have to be constantly updated to ensure that we do not apply 20th century solutions and mindsets to 21st century problems. The democratic upsurge mentioned by the Director General is one of them. We can best influence this by being an example – rather than trying any policy presumption.

We also have to be mindful of the fact that South Asia does not exist in isolation. This year marks two decades of India’s engagement with ASEAN and a commemorative Summit will be held in New Delhi in December this year. It also marks twenty years of India’s policy of connecting with Central Asia.

Our exceptionally close ties to the Gulf region need no elaboration. We are also building an Indian Ocean Littoral community. Our engagement with all these regions is progressing rapidly and it is apparent that many of the problems and opportunities presented in this report need not just a South Asian perspective but have to be seen from a trans-regional angle. We would like our policy towards South Asia and towards these regions to present a seamless continuum.

The document ends by declaring that South Asia is at a cross-roads. We are presented with threats and opportunities, strengths and weaknesses. It is identifying these and suggesting a policy framework to address them that

this report has added value to the ongoing discourse on improving linkages within South Asia. The recommendations of the report about the broadening of India’s foreign policy approach are being examined seriously and will be taken on-board in our internal deliberations.

I would like to conclude by noting that the Ministry of External Affairs has not been entirely reactive. Nor have we let the acute shortage of resources stop us from taking some proactive steps. We have created bureaus within our Ministry that deal with emerging issues. We have stepped up recruitment of personnel into the Indian Foreign Service.

We have also increased the intake from other services and backgrounds to build in-house expertise on non-traditional areas. We are funding an increasing amount of academic research across India on foreign policy issues. We understand that domestic factors will influence policy towards our neighbours and have cre-

THE PROMOTION OF A POLITICALLY STABLE AND ECONOMICALLY SECURE PERIPHERY IS A PARAMOUNT FOREIGN POLICY OBJECTIVE FOR INDIA. THIS IS ESSENTIAL TO DEAL WITH THE CHALLENGES OF FOSTERING SUSTAINABLE GROWTH ated a presence in State capitals through Branch Secretariats.

We have created a Development Partnership Administration that will look into optimising the programmes that are being devised for development cooperation with our partners in the developing world, particularly with our neighbours. Visa regimes and consular issues remain a challenge but receive our constant attention.

We will continue with our efforts to be responsive to the needs of changing nation. As the world evolves so will we. But our first priority is and will be for some time the neighbourhood. That is why this is the right time to see how it will look over the next 2 decades and I commend this book to you for opening our debate.

(Remarks by Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai at the launch of IDSA report ‘India’s Neighbourhood: Challenges in the Next Two Decades’ on July 13, 2012)

May - July 2012

67

Page66-75 Documents:page14-25 India-East Africa Relations.qxd 11/24/2012 4:55 PM Page 68

DOCUMENTS

Focus on sustainable development

India’s Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh speaking at the fourth plenary session of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20), at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on June 21.

L

et me begin by congratulating President Dilma Rousseff for hosting this conference and for her outstanding stewardship of the negotiations. We thank the people of Brazil for their warm hospitality and the excellent arrangements made for this conference. Brazil, like India, is a confluence of cultures and peoples. I feel honoured to be among you.

We meet at a time of serious economic crisis and political ferment in the world. The Rio+20 Summit on Sustainable Development is timely because it focuses our minds on “the future we want� and how to realize it. Difficult though it may seem, we have to summon the imagination to balance the costs that we will incur in the present with the benefits that will accrue to future generations.

Economic Development, social inclusion and environmental sustainability are all equally critical as components of sustainable development. The task before us is to give practical shape and content to this architecture in a manner that allows each country to develop according to its own national priorities and circumstances.

For developing countries, inclusive growth and a rapid increase in per capita income levels are development imperatives. The 1992 Rio Summit correctly acknowledged that poverty eradication must remain the over-riding priority for developing countries.

68

May - July 2012

Those living at the subsistence level cannot bear the costs of adjustment and their livelihood considerations are important in determining how scarce natural resources such as land, water and forests are used. The severe deterioration of land and water resources is already affecting the well- being of millions of people living on the edges of subsistence, particularly women and children.

Sustainable development also mandates the efficient use of available natural resources. We have to be much more frugal in the way we use natural resources. A key area of focus is energy. We have to promote, universal access to energy, while, at the same time, promoting energy efficiency and a shift to cleaner energy sources by addressing various technological, financial and institutional constraints. In India, we are implementing an ambitious National Solar Mission as a critical option for our energy security.

Moreover, current consumption patterns in the industrialized world are unsustainable. We need to find new pathways for sustainable living.

Environmental sustainability is the third leg of the sustainable development architecture. Economic activity invariably results in negative spinoffs, either by way of local pollution, or by way of global effects such as Greenhouse Gas emissions. We need to tackle both.

Page66-75 Documents:page14-25 India-East Africa Relations.qxd 11/24/2012 4:55 PM Page 69

AFRICA QUARTERLY Local pollution can be regulated and such regulation may impose costs on various economic actors. To ensure equity, there may be a case for targeted assistance to small producers to meet part of these costs and this should be built into policy.

At the global level, our approach to the problem should be guided by equitable burden sharing. It is for this reason that the first Rio Summit enshrined the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities. I am happy we have reaffirmed this principle as well as the principle of equity during this Summit This does not, however, mean that countries should not take proactive actions to promote sustainable development. In India, our efforts over the last two decades have yielded positive results. Over the period 1994-2007, our emissions-GDP intensity, excluding agriculture, has declined nearly 25 percent. Looking ahead, we have set a target to further reduce the emissions intensity of GDP by 20-25 percent between 2005 and 2020.

Many countries could do more if additional finance and technology were available. Unfortunately, there is little evidence of support from the industrialised countries in these areas. The ongoing economic crisis has made matters worse.

One of the key challenges that demands urgent glob-

WE HAVE TO PROMOTE, UNIVERSAL ACCESS TO ENERGY, WHILE, AT THE SAME TIME, PROMOTING ENERGY EFFICIENCY AND A SHIFT TO CLEANER ENERGY SOURCES al action is the worrying depletion of bio-diversity across our planet. The Eleventh Conference of Parties on Convention on Biodiversity is being hosted by India in October this year at Hyderabad. We look forward to working with the global community to make it a success.

The future we want should be a future in which there is ecological and economic space for sustainable growth for all. Let us work together to attain the future that we all desire. With these words I once again thank you Mr President.

(Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s statement at the Plenary of the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20 Summit) at Rio de Janeiro in Brazil on June 21, 2012)

Reforming global financial system

W

e welcome the efforts to strengthen the IMF resources and as I announced yesterday, we will contribute US$10 billion.

I must point out, however, that the progress in quota reform is proceeding more slowly than raising resources.

I recognise that there are practical reasons why the quota

Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh in a group photo with the G-20 leaders at Los Cabos, Mexico, on June 18.

May - July 2012

69

Page66-75 Documents:page14-25 India-East Africa Relations.qxd 11/24/2012 4:55 PM Page 70

DOCUMENTS

THERE ARE PRACTICAL REASONS WHY THE QUOTA REFORM AGREED IN 2010 WILL NOT BE COMPLETED BY 2012, BUT IT MUST BE DONE EXPEDITIOUSLY THEREAFTER reform agreed in 2010 will not be completed by the end of 2012, but it must be done expeditiously thereafter.

It is also important that the quota review schedule for January 2013 is completed in time. Quotas must reflect economic weights, in a manner that is simple and transparent.

These objectives can be best achieved by recognizing

the predominant role of GDP on PPP basis in the formula without going into other variables. This basic position should not be compromised in any way and we need to reiterate our position strongly.

I welcome the progress made in financial regulatory reform. However, much remains to be done. We discussed the need to move towards a banking union in Europe to help strengthen financial stability. I am also concerned that prudential rules adopted in banking regulation do not discriminate against lending to developing countries.

(Prime Minister’s statement on ‘Strengthening the international financial architecture and the financial system and promoting financial inclusion’ at the second plenary session of G-20 leaders in Los Cabos, Mexico, on June 19, 2012)

Scaling up India-SA business linkages

L

et me begin by conveying my deep appreciation for the presence of President Zuma at this Business Forum. This augurs well not only for this Business Forum but also for broader economic engagement between our two countries. It gives me great pleasure to join the business representatives from South Africa and India here today. The economic and commercial exchanges between our two countries are at the core of our bilateral ties.

Growth rate of over forty-three percent in our bilateral trade registered in the year 2010-11 is impressive by any standard but especially so in today’s global economic scenario. I am extremely happy to note that the trade target of Ten billion US Dollars by 2012 agreed during the State Visit of President Zuma to India in June 2010, was achieved last year with bilateral trade having crossed the figure of Eleven billion US Dollars.

I am told that the next goal is to achieve bilateral trade of Fifteen billion US Dollars by year 2014. I am confident that this target would also be achieved as we build on the momentum of our bilateral ties. South Africa is one of our most important trading partners and in the future too, I believe, our two countries will have deep economic engagement.

I am happy that Indian companies work closely to achieve the priorities of the South African government, and are also seeking to add value to raw materials, with a view to increasing beneficiation locally. Indian companies have not only built partnerships with their South

70

May - July 2012

African counterparts, but also view it as a gateway to the Southern African region.

Indian companies are also significant investors in the services sector. India itself has become a predominantly service economy with over fifty-five percent of our GDP attributable to services. This has naturally meant that the trade in services has become an important component of our international engagement. IT Technology, training, capacity building, Business Process Outsourcing, banking and finance, and transfer of technology are important areas of our exchanges.

Our confidence in the South African economy is reflected in the fact that several major Indian banks are present in South Africa, and I am told that their representation is planned to grow in the future. We are also happy that many important firms from South Africa have established their presence in India. We want many more of your companies to look at business opportunities in India.

The Joint CEO’s Forum set up during President Zuma’s State Visit to India in 2010, provides an institutional mechanism for our economic and commercial interaction.

I would also like to compliment the Business Unity South Africa for proactively bringing the business communities of our two countries together. I have been told that on average at least one South African business delegation visits India every month. I hope that this frequency only grows in the future, and gives a further fillip to our trade and industry co-operation.

Page66-75 Documents:page14-25 India-East Africa Relations.qxd 11/24/2012 4:55 PM Page 71

AFRICA QUARTERLY

India’s President Pratibha Devisingh Patil laying wreath at Freedom Park in Pretoria, South Africa, on May 2.

India seeks economic development that has an inclusive character so that it benefits all our citizens. The fulfillment of our goals would depend to a great extent on the ability to tackle the constraints in our physical infrastructure. Power, roads, airports and ports, are all India’s overarching priorities - and investments of close to one trillion US Dollars would be required in the next five years. Like us, South Africa too, is focused on boosting its infrastructure development.

This provides an excellent investment opportunity for Indian and South African companies to look at each other’s strengths in infrastructure, housing, engineering, skill building and other key areas, and find complementarities for forging mutually beneficial collaborations.

As we build infrastructure in our respective countries, we can look at each other as partners. In the field of energy security too - another important objective for both countries - renewable energy and gasification of coal are areas in which we can work together. I urge the business community to explore these possibilities and concretize projects.

A critical and an absolutely necessary input for the sustainable growth of a nation’s economy and all its sectors is technology, which in turn, depends on research and development. India has a rich human capital and a strong knowledge base. We have been successful in many frontier areas - space, nuclear energy, Information Technology, nano-technology and bio-technology, among others.

INDIAN COMPANIES WORK CLOSELY TO ACHIEVE THE PRIORITIES OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN GOVERNMENT, AND ARE ALSO SEEKING TO ADD VALUE TO RAW MATERIALS The Indian Space Research Organisation is working with the South African National Space Agency to support joint initiatives, so that as developing countries we are not left out in our efforts to explore new areas. I feel that it would be useful to share our knowledge and experience, to translate the cutting-edge knowledge of science into products for the market.

This will yield benefits both in terms of new employment and new products for consumers. Technical education linkages would get a fillip and new momentum, if on both sides, businesses were to assess the value of such research and collaboration and promote them.

India and South Africa are strategic partners. South Africa has become a member of BRICS, adding greater weight to this grouping. We were honoured that President Zuma travelled to Delhi in March 2012 for the BRICS Summit in New Delhi.

The Summit had discussed the establishment of a

May - July 2012

71

Page66-75 Documents:page14-25 India-East Africa Relations.qxd 11/24/2012 4:55 PM Page 72

DOCUMENTS

President Pratibha Devisingh Patil paying her respect after unveiling the bust of Mahatma Gandhi at the Constitution Hill in Johannesburg on May 3.

development bank which would cater for needs of developing countries. We look forward to working with South Africa to take the process forward, as many developing countries are looking to us to provide leadership in the 21st Century.

India and the Southern Africa Customs Union are

negotiating a broad based Preferential Trade and Investment Agreement which will, in our view, serve the mutual interest of both sides. I hope that South Africa would facilitate the early completion of the internal discussion process. I visualize great opportunities for expansion of trade in goods and services and two-way investment through this Agreement.

We are keen to working with South Africa bilaterally, and also through the IBSA, BRICS, G-20 and other international fora, to deal with the impact of economic fluctuations in the Western countries on our economy, and ensure that international financial institutions reflect the emerging economic realities.

In conclusion, I would like to share with you that my interactions with President Zuma and the leadership of South Africa, have left me in no doubt that the IndiaSouth Africa relationship is based on solid foundations and has a bright future. There is tremendous potential to expand the India-South Africa bilateral partnership.

I urge you to fully utilize the opportunity of meeting today, to impart further momentum to business relations between our two countries. You can be sure of a helping hand from the two Governments, as they are committed to taking bilateral economic ties to ever greater heights.

(Speech by President Smt. Pratibha Devisingh Patil at India-South Africa Business Forum on May 3, 2012}

Deepening strategic ties with South Africa

I

ndia and South Africa are bound by ties of history, emotional attachment, cultural affinities and indeed, kinship. It is even more satisfying that our bilateral relationship today has acquired a robust and dynamic character, to assume the dimension of a strategic partnership.

Since the establishment of our relations in 1994, we have developed strong ties and institutional frameworks for dialogue and cooperation in the political, economic, commercial, science and technology fields.

Our bilateral relations today are wide-ranging, multidimensional and mutually beneficial. Our shared and abiding commitment to the ideals of democracy and pluralism has only reinforced our close and friendly ties. My visit to South Africa is part of our tradition of regular high-level exchanges, reaffirming our common commitment to take our relations onward to new heights.

Today’s discussions with His Excellency President

72

May - July 2012

Jacob Zuma were wide ranging and covered bilateral, regional and international issues of mutual interest. The focus of our discussions was on issues covering the vast canvass of Indo-South African relations.

While expressing satisfaction over the current state of our relations, we did feel that considerable opportunities existed which are needed to be fully explored, particularly in the area of trade and economic cooperation.

Indian companies are investing in capacity building by systematic training of South Africans, creating jobs and playing an important role in the development and economic growth of South Africa.

A business delegation from India accompanies me, and it would explore business opportunities in South Africa, to give greater thrust to this important sphere of our interaction. President Zuma and I will be participating in the Business Forum tomorrow to listen to views of captains of industry from both sides, and

Page66-75 Documents:page14-25 India-East Africa Relations.qxd 11/24/2012 4:55 PM Page 73

AFRICA QUARTERLY

India’s President Pratibha Devisingh Patil and President of South Africa Jacob Zuma, at the joint press conference, at Union Buildings, in Pretoria, South Africa, on May 2.

encourage them to contribute to our bilateral economic exchanges.

We have agreed to closely monitor the implementation of various agreements that exist and expand cooperation in the fields of power including renewable energy, health, Information Technology, Science and Technology, tourism, hospitality, infrastructure development and culture. People to people contacts are at the heart of our vibrant and robust relationship.

India is interested in working closely with the Government of South Africa to develop Gandhi heritage sites in South Africa. Both the governments continue to support the wide range of linkages that exist between our universities, research institutes, academic institutions, think-tanks, media houses and civil society.

We are mindful of the sporting ties between the countries, especially in cricket. I would also like to recognise the South African hand in the form of Coach Gary Kirsten in ensuring victory for India in the Cricket World Cup in 2011.

I have thanked the Government of the Republic of South Africa for its meaningful contribution, as one of our closest partners, on important issues like reform of the United Nations, reform of the international financial system, including the Bretton Woods Institutions, climate change and global trade talks.

India and South Africa are members of IBSA, BRICS, G-20, IOR-ARC, NAM, the Commonwealth and other

INDIA AND SOUTH AFRICA AGREED TO CLOSELY MONITOR THE IMPLEMENTATION OF VARIOUS AGREEMENTS THAT EXIST AND EXPAND COOPERATION plurilateral as well as multilateral bodies, where we work together.

Piracy in the Indian Ocean region adversely impacts on us all. We are deeply committed to working with the Government of South Africa and its people, to ensure that our trade routes are not affected, and we are able to bring a sense of safety and security in the maritime waters.

I am confident that today’s discussions have promoted a better understanding of issues of mutual interest and established a solid foundation for the deepening and expansion of our mutually beneficial strategic partnership, and in bringing our two peoples closer together for a better future.

(Statement by President Pratibha Patil at the conclusion of talks with the President of South Africa, on May 2, 2012)

May - July 2012

73

Page66-75 Documents:page14-25 India-East Africa Relations.qxd 11/24/2012 4:55 PM Page 74

DOCUMENTS

Focus on sustainable development

India’s Minister of State for External Affairs E Ahamed addressing the XVII NAM Ministerial Meeting in Sharm El Sheikh on May 9.

I

would like to express our deep appreciation for the exemplary manner in which Egypt has guided the Non-Aligned Movement. In today’s increasingly inter-connected and inter-dependent world, the challenges confronting us are much more complex, multidimensional and transnational in nature. In facing these challenges, the unity of the Movement is of paramount importance.

Winds of change are sweeping across West Asia and North Africa today. People are demanding a greater role for themselves in shaping their destiny, politically and economically. These aspirations need to be channelised into an inclusive and participatory polity while maintaining social stability and cohesion.

This process should take into consideration each society’s particular circumstances and the genius of its people and not to cede any space to extremism.

Insofar as the international community is concerned, diplomatic efforts rather than military means should be pursued. Although they require patience and persistence, they provide more durable solutions. It is also important to respect the unity, territorial integrity, sovereignty and independence of Member States. As the world’s largest democracy and a fellow developing country, India stands ready to share its institution-building experience.

While talking about the changes taking place in West Asia and North Africa, we must not forget the long-standing issue of Palestine. India supports the Palestinian people’s struggle for a sovereign, independent, viable and united State of Palestine with East Jerusalem as its capital living within secure and recognized borders, side by side

74

May - July 2012

and at peace with Israel, as endorsed in the Arab Peace initiative, the Quartet Roadmap and relevant UN Security Council Resolutions.

We have also been at the forefront of supporting Palestine’s statehood and membership of the UN. Some of the major challenges confronting the world today relate to the world economy and its impact on development.

It is imperative that we make all efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals and eradicate poverty.

Stability in food and energy prices also needs to be a critical endeavour. We must bring about a qualitative enhancement in the health and education situation of our people.

Sustainable development and inclusive growth need to be integral to our efforts.

The development imperatives of developing countries and social cohesion and environmental protection must be ensured in the outcome of the Rio +20 Conference.

Climate change must be addressed based on the principles of equity and common but differentiated responsibility. We need to reinvigorate our efforts towards more democratic, equitable, and legitimized platforms of global governance that reflect contemporary realities.

The world’s international institutions, in particular, the UN and its Security Council require fundamental changes.

Genuine reform is essential, in particular of the Security Council and it must encompass expansion in both permanent and non-permanent categories of membership and an improvement of its working methods.

Our African brethren constitute the largest single grouping in our Movement. The Movement must continue to work towards ensuring Africa’s pre-eminence in the global development agenda. We are happy that at this meeting we will be adopting a declaration to commemorate the centenary of the African National Conference.

We must ensure that the needs of the Least Developed Countries are given high priority. The special requirements of the Small Island Developing States must also be addressed. India is strongly committed to South-South Cooperation with fellow developing countries world-wide.

Partnership with Africa is a cornerstone of our development partnership efforts.

Terrorism is one of the greatest scourges of our times.

It cannot be condoned or justified on any ground whatsoever.

India attaches the highest priority to the goal of nuclear disarmament which is also enshrined in the Rajiv Gandhi Action Plan of 1988. The Movement should continue to support international efforts for achieving universal and nondiscriminatory nuclear disarmament and a world free of all nuclear weapons within a time-bound framework.

Page66-75 Documents:page14-25 India-East Africa Relations.qxd 11/24/2012 4:55 PM Page 75

NAM should support the UN disarmament machinery as stated in the First special session of the General Assembly on Disarmament. We must build on areas of commonality, guided by a forward looking and focussed agenda for our Movement, which draws inspiration from our convictions of the past and our aspirations for the future. Diversity is our strength. As we confront the

challenges of today, it is imperative that we act in unity and solidarity.

(This is the edited version of statement by Minister of State for External Affairs E. Ahamed at the NAM Ministerial Meeting in Sharm El-Sheikh on May 09, 2012)

Harnessing Internet for inclusive growth

I

nternet is a living entity, expanding, changing and evolving continuously. It has already become a critical resource affecting all activities of mankind. It is evident from the interventions today by various stakeholders that we all share a common goal for the internet to foster free expression, innovation and expansion to enable it to respond to growing demands. India is committed to tapping the tremendous potential of cyber space and the tremendous opportunity it provides and to creating a citizen-centric and business-centric environment to connect all human beings to the information highway. However, given the nature of IT networks, continuous coordination is required by all stakeholders, including governments, to maintain its open character. India wishes to emphasise the need for global coordination to ensure that Internet continues to be a free and secure medium for the whole world.

The World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) has recognized the need for an open and inclusive process involving all stakeholders, including countries and communities to voice concern on the international public policy issues pertaining to Internet and its Governance. WSIS has also mandated the process for Enhanced Cooperation to enable Governments on an equal footing to carry out their roles and responsibilities pertaining to the Internet.

The process of Enhanced Cooperation has been brought up in various fora by several countries, including India, Brazil & South Africa (IBSA), reflected in the IBSA Joint Statement at the Open consultations on Enhanced Cooperation on December 14, 2010, and the G77 in the various meetings of the UN, including the annual session of the UN Committee for Science & Technology Development (CSTD) under the ECOSOC and the UN General Assembly (UNGA).

The Tunis Agenda mandates that Internet Governance should be multilateral, multi-stakeholder, democratic and transparent. It aims at keeping the Internet sustainable, robust, secure and stable and at promoting developmental agenda through the Internet.

There are major cross-cutting public policy issues such as internet freedom, cyber security, privacy of data,

reliability of Internet service, accessibility to trouble shooting, content, piracy, etc. that need to be discussed and addressed at some platform involving all stakeholders, if the objectives of the Tunis Agenda are to be attained.

India had made a statement during the 66th session of the UNGA, where we had made a proposal for setting up of a Committee on Internet related Policies (CIRP). This proposal may be seen in the light of the mandate enshrined within the Tunis Agenda.

India believes in the freedom of Internet and free deliberations on public policy for Internet Governance. In the light of the strategic nature of the Internet and its expansion, taking a global view in the overall interest of the global community on the issues of the public policy for Internet Governance would be the right approach. India would be pragmatic and flexible in its approach.

We would like a discussion on all aspects of internet governance that have been raised so far, without prejudicing the outcome. We consider that the setting up of a Working Group on Enhanced Cooperation will be an important step forward and we would like this to be included in the UN SG’s report to the UNGA later this year.

The Internet can and should be an effective medium to inclusive growth in all countries, particularly developing countries. E-governance, e-commerce, infotainment, resource mapping and meteorological and other essential services are extremely useful tools for development and should be made accessible to all countries.

The ability of the existing Internet infrastructure to be used globally for delivering programmes for development requires a free and secure Internet. Creating a democratic Internet governance structure will ensure a balance between private commercial and public policy interests and address developmental concerns.

(This is the edited version of statement by Dilip Sinha, Permanent Representative of India to the UN Offices in Geneva, at the UN Committee on Science & Technology for Development (UNCSTD) open meeting in Geneva on May 18, 2012)

May - July 2012

75

Page76-77 Travel:page14-25 India-East Africa Relations.qxd 11/24/2012 4:58 PM Page 76

TRAVEL

In search of duality Puducherry is today a town with a dual personality: there is two of everything, one French and the other Indian, writes Moushumi Mohanty

F

or every stately 17th or 18th century church or building built by the French in Puducherry, there is an equally ancient and spectacular temple. The duality is evident on the food front as well. The town is quite simply a foodie’s delight, with restaurants offering the best of French and continental cuisine — as well as a sumptuous selection of the region’s Chettinad fare. As for the people, the friendly locals apart, the experimental township of Auroville (or the City of Dawn) is a place where you find people of practically every nationality living together in harmony. (And roaming the well laid out avenues of the town, you will come upon a statue of Marquis Joseph Francois Dupleix, the governor of Puducherry from 1742 to 1754 – and it is matched, not too far away, by another: of Mahatma Gandhi. More duality.)

76

May - July 2012

Once you breeze into Pondi via the stunningly picturesque East Coast Road — if you are driving down from Chennai — and are in a mood for a quick heritage tour, a visit is recommended to the local municipal office. Yes, the headquarters of the Puducherry Municipality. It is housed on Goubert Avenue in a building facing the sea and painted a pristine white, which seems to have been transported here from the Mediterranean seafront. Nearby is the French War Memorial, where soldiers who died in World War I are honoured in a ceremony on Bastille Day every year (July 14).

Other delights from Puducherry’s French past are the Light House built in the early 19th century and the colonial structure that houses the French Consulate which, not surprisingly, is the only diplomatic mission in a 150 km radius. Incidentally, most of the Frenchmen

Page76-77 Travel:page14-25 India-East Africa Relations.qxd 11/24/2012 4:58 PM Page 77

AFRICA QUARTERLY

(From left) The Mahatma Gandhi Statue in Puducherry; the Matrimandir in Auroville, near Puducherry; and the French War Memorial in Puducherry.

and women who use the Consulate are residents of Auroville — mostly disciples and followers of Sri Aurobindo and The Mother — and are Hindus. Yes, the French diaspora here is majority Hindu.

There are, of course, churches — ranging from the serene to the grand — to visit, and other historical structures to gaze upon, but the way to really enjoy the town is to walk around the French Quarter, taking in names like Dumas Street, Romain Rolland Avenue and Suffren Street, and soaking in a distinctly European ambience.

Now, the food. Let’s first get the vegetarians out of the way. There are some really nice vegetarian eating joints in Pondi. Locals strongly recommend Surguru and Jayaram, both of which offer authentic South Indian fare. And if it is North Indian vegetarian you are looking for, the Punjabi Dhabha on Mission street has been recommended by visitors.

Continental cuisine is, however, why you really are in Pondi. The eatery at Auroville is a must-visit, not only for the serenity of its setting, but also for its authentic fare.

And scores of visitors to the town have vouched for the food at the Don Giovanni, with some even going

There are some really nice vegetarian eating joints in ‘Pondi’. Locals strongly recommend Surguru and Jayaram, both of which offer authentic South Indian fare so far as to contend that it is the best Italian restaurant in India. Other restaurants such as Rendezvous and Seagulls offer French, continental and seafood.

For a non-vegetarian foodie, though, the highpoint of the visit may well be eating at the Appachi, a notso-fancy restaurant on Rangapillai street offering excellent Chettinad cuisine. And while the mutton and chicken preparations are not to be missed, please make sure you do not leave without having the shark mince. The only problem is that it may not be on the menu every day. If it is not, it’s a good enough reason to extend your stay by a day, or two.

May - July 2012

77

Page78-79 Contributor:page14-25 India-East Africa Relations.qxd 11/24/2012 4:58 PM Page 78

AFRICA QUARTERLY

Contributors ■ DR SURESH KUMAR serves as Associate Professor, Department of African Studies, University of Delhi, India.

He is Chief Editor of Africaindia.org (http://www.africaindia.org) and the Indian Journal of African Studies. He is active as a member of the Africa Committee of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), an executive member of the Indo-African Chamber of Commerce and Industries (IACCI) and a member of the Advisory Group on India-Africa of the Indian Council of World Affairs. Dr Kumar has travelled widely in East Asia, Europe, South America and Africa for research and teaching assignments.

■ PRANAY SINHA is a doctoral candidate and a part-time research fellow in the International Development Department at the University of Birmingham. Having completed his second Master’s Studies in Aid Management at Birmingham in 2009, he moved back to India to work as a Public Finance Specialist for a UNDP-funded project with Department of Administrative Reforms, Govt. of NCT of Delhi. Prior to that, he worked with the UNDP and was seconded to the Ministry of Finance, Govt. of India for establishing Coordination and Decision Support System on external aid after four years spent working with the ADB and the World Bank poverty reduction projects in western India. He is presently involved with Michael Hubbard in an aid data research funded by DFID through its Future of Aid and Beyond Research Competition.

■ MANISH CHAND is Editor of Africa Quarterly, a journal focused on India-Africa relations and African issues. He

is Senior Editor with IANS, a leading Indian media company. He has written widely on international issues and presented papers on the African resurgence and the rise of emerging powers in the African continent.

78

May - July 2012

Page78-79 Contributor:page14-25 India-East Africa Relations.qxd 11/24/2012 4:58 PM Page 79

AFRICA QUARTERLY

Note to Contributors Africa Quarterly, published since 1961, is devoted to the study and objective analyses of African affairs and issues related to India-Africa relations. Contributions are invited from outstanding writers, experts and specialists in India, Africa and other countries on various political, economic, social-cultural, literary, philosophical and other themes pertaining to African affairs and India-Africa relations. Preference will be given to those articles which deal succinctly with issues that are both important and clearly defined. Articles which are purely narrative and descriptive and lacking in analytical content are not likely to be accepted. Contributions should be in a clear, concise, readable style and written in English.

Articles submitted to Africa Quarterly should be original contributions and should not be under consideration by any other publication at the same time. The Editor is responsible for the selection and acceptance of articles, but responsibility for errors of facts and opinions expressed in them rests with authors. Manuscripts submitted should be accompanied with a statement that the same has not been submitted/accepted for publication elsewhere.

Copyright of articles published in the Africa Quarterly will be retained by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR).

Manuscripts submitted to Africa Quarterly should be typed double space on one side of the paper and two copies should be sent. A diskette (3 ½” ) MS-Dos compatible, and e-mail as an attachment should be sent along with the two hard copies. Authors should clearly indicate their full name, address, e-mail, academic status and current institutional affiliation. A brief biographical note (one paragraph) about the writer may also be sent.

The length of the article should not normally exceed 7,000 to 8,000 words, or 20 to 25 ( A-4 size) typed pages in manuscript. Titles should be kept as brief as possible.

Footnote numbering should be clearly marked and consecutively numbered in the text and notes placed at the end of the article and not at the bottom of the relevant page. Tables (including graphs, maps, figures) must be submitted in a form suitable for reproduction on a separate sheet of paper and not within the text. Each table should have a clear descriptive title and mention where it is to be placed in the article. Place all footnotes in a table at the end of the article. Reference numbers within the text should be placed after the punctuation mark.

Footnote style: In the case of books, the author, title of the book, place of publication, publisher, date of publication and page numbers should be given in that order, e.g. Basil Davidson, ‘The Blackman’s Burden: Africa and the Curse of the Nation State’, London, James Curry, 1992, pp. 15-22.

In the case of articles, the author, title of article, name of the journal, volume and issue number in brackets, the year and the page numbers should be given in that order.

In addition to major articles and research papers, Africa Quarterly also publishes short articles in the section titled News & Events. They may not exceed 2,000 words in length. Contributions of short stories and poems are also welcome.

Contributors to Africa Quarterly are entitled to two copies of the issue in which their article appears in addition to a modest honorarium. Contributors of major articles accepted for publication will receive up to a maximum of `4,000.

Contributions may be sent by post to: The Editor Africa Quarterly Indian Council for Cultural Relations Azad Bhavan Indraprastha Estate New Delhi-110 002 Contributions may be e-mailed to: africa.quarterly@gmail.com

May - July 2012

79

Volume 52, No. 2 May-July 2012

africa Q

U

A

R

T

E

R

L

AGRICULTURE: A GREEN REVOLUTION IN AFRICA DIPLOMACY: MANAGING TRANSPARENCY SCALING THE SUMMIT: SPIRIT OF COOPERATION

Y

A F R I C A Q U A R T E R L Y

Indian Council for Cultural Relations Azad Bhavan Indraprastha Estate New Delhi — 110 002 E-mail: africa.quarterly@gmail.com Registered with the Registrar of Newspapers of India Regd No. 14380/61

I

N D I A N

C

O U N C I L

F O R

C

U L T U R A L

R

E L A T I O N S