India-Africa Economic Relations in the New Global Economy

While there have been many books about China’s growing economic role in Africa, this book explores the much less-well-known story of India’s growing economic role in Africa. And like the big debates about China’s role in Africa, this book similarly asks if India is acting as a helpful development partner in Africa, an exploitative “new colonizer,” or if the answer ultimately has to do with the degree of agency exercised by African governments.

While the book documents the significant increase in Indian aid, trade, and FDI in Africa in the new millennium, it also offers much more. It comprehensively looks at theories of economic development, the debates about the role of trade and industrial policies in economic development strategies, colonial and post-colonial literature, and controversial features of today’s global political economy as the background to study Africa and frames Africa–India economic relations in these broad contexts. The book reviews the history of India’s diplomacy, trade, and investment in African countries since decolonization, with a focus on the increased economic ties of the past two decades. The main question examined is about the longterm impact that India’s economic relations are having in African economies, and if India is helping Africa to successfully develop over time, or not. The author examines India’s economic and strategic interests in the African region and offers a comparative analysis of Africa’s trade with India, China, the European Union, and other African nations. The book also explores a number of outstanding issues in India–Africa relations today, such as Africa’s role as a source of oil, gas, and critical minerals needed by India, the lifesaving role of Indian generic medicines across the continent, the nature of the agricultural development model that India is introducing in Africa, and key areas where Indian and African governments are cooperating in the international arena.

The book offers a critical and in-depth look into the partnerships India has developed with African countries and contributes to the debate on economic relations between a more developed emerging market like India and less developed countries. A major contribution to the emerging area of South–South economics, this book–part of the Critical Political Economy of South Asia series–will be useful for scholars and researchers of economics, development economics, development studies, public policy, diplomacy, African studies, political economy, South Asian economics, and international politics and trade.

Rick Rowden is an expert in the economic development strategies of developing countries, reforms to the global financial architecture, and the emerging field of South–South economic relations in the global economy. He has worked with international NGOs including ActionAid and Global Financial Integrity, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in Geneva, and has taught in the School of International Service at American University in Washington, DC, the Department of Global Studies at California State University, Monterey Bay (CSUMB) and the Department of Political Science at Golden Gate University in San Francisco, USA.