Indian Council of World Affairs

Shri Dammu Ravi, Secretary (ER), MEA

Shri Prabhat Kumar, AS(ER & DPA), MEA,

Prof. Sachin Chaturvedi, Director General, RIS,

Distinguished Speakers and Participants,

It is my pleasure to welcome you to the ICWA National Seminar on the topic, “India’s Development Partnership: Expanding Vistas.”

Over the past more than seven decades, India has steadily walked the path of economic growth with impressive development of its agricultural, industrial, technological bases. India established a range of institutions in these sectors and at the same time also focused on building its educational institutions and setting up a strong eco-system for R&D and innovation.  It has expanded its railways, roads & highways infrastructure and built an extensive network of airports.   Even as it has been developing itself, India has continually shared its developmental experiences and technical expertise with other countries.  Resultantly, India’s Development Partnership has become one of the principal tools for strengthening its ties with other developing countries and a pillar of its foreign policy.  India believes that countries grow and develop on the basis of reliable partnerships and cooperation. 

India’s Development Partnership is based on trust, on an understanding of the requirements of its development partner; and a commitment to working together, so that the partnership ultimately leads to capacity building, and contributes to sustained growth & sustainable development of the partner country.

One of the basic features of India’s development cooperation is that it does not come with conditionalities. Outlining this philosophy, Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, in his address at the Parliament of Uganda in July 2018, while speaking about India’s engagement with Africa said that - (Quote) "Our development partnership will be guided by your priorities.  It will be on terms that will be comfortable for you, that will liberate your potential and not constrain your future… We will build as much local capacity and create as many local opportunities as possible” (Unquote).

India’s involvement in South-South Cooperation has been long, regular and fruitful. The instruments that have molded India’s model of developmental partnership are grants-in-aid, lines of credit; capacity building and technical cooperation. India’s development cooperation ranges from energy to engineering, from health to housing, from IT to infrastructure, from sports to science, from disaster relief and humanitarian assistance to restoration and preservation of cultural and heritage assets.  Our efforts in capacity building by providing annual training slots under the Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) Programme began in 1964.  ITEC is a flagship programme of assistance of the Government of India which has grown substantially over the years. At present, 161 countries in Asia, Africa, East Europe, Latin America, the Caribbean and Pacific and Small Island Countries are participating in this programme.  

In January 2012 to pursue its Development Partnership programme with renewed vigour, the Ministry of External Affairs set up the Development Partnership Administration (DPA) unit for implementing policy, projects and capacity building initiatives. It has now completed ten years.  Our National Seminar today provides an occasion to take stock of DPA’s activities, its achievements and challenges and to deliberate upon its future course.

India has been very clear that South-South Cooperation, particularly Lines of Credit and soft loans, should neither be an undue burden on the recipient country nor result in unsustainable indebtedness, thereby making it counter-productive and hinder the overall development of the recipient country.

There are some challenges in the implementation of both grant projects and Line of Credit projects which impact the pace of executing projects. These issues are best addressed through dialogue and consultation with the government of the host country.

Apart from bilateral development projects, today, India is working with third countries such as through India-Brazil-South Africa Fund. It has also established a $ 150 million fund under the India-UN Development Partnership that supports 66 projects in 52 countries.

The Covid-19 period demonstrated that South-South Cooperation has become even more critical and India’s contribution to and its role in this field remains highly relevant and constructive.

Our two-day National Seminar will look into India’s development partnerships covering different geographies. Sessions are planned on ‘Neighbourhood First’, ‘Act East & Indo-Pacific’, ‘Look West’, ‘Connect Central Asia’, ‘Engaging with Africa and Latin American Countries’.  The seminar will take stock of the initiatives taken and ongoing in various regions of the world, assess successes achieved, understand challenges and the future road ahead.

We hope the Seminar’s deliberations will bring forth fresh ideas and recommendations that would strengthen the various partnerships that we have built and will be building in the future.

Thank you for your attention.

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