South-South Cooperation India’s

Programme of Development
Assistance- Nature, Size and
Functioning.
FA N G J I AY I
M196424
Introduction
Traditional donors and the emergency of non- traditional donors(30%).
India is an emerging donor, and it is projected that this would go up to 3.5 billion dollars
annually, nearly 0.2% of GDP.
India is one of the oldest aid providers, and its external assistance programme began in the
1950s, immediately after independence.
Nepal, Bhutan and Burma are the main received countries which have strong historical, cultural
and social bonds with India.
So, in fact, India is a mature donor with a full set of aid modalities.
India and South- South Development
Cooperation: India’s Aid Programme
India’s aid programme started with giving aid to Nepal uder the Colombo Plan in the early
1950s.
Under the Colombo Plan, India sent experts to as many as 64 countries, and between 1950 to
1971 India’s aid was estimated to be about Rs. 40 Million.(1 dollar- 75 Rs.)
Colombo Plan is not the only major channel through which development has been provided by
India.
Other India Technical Economic Cooperation(ITEC)
major
Special Commonwealth Assistance for Africa
channels Programme(SCAAP)
include
Export and Import(EXIM) Bank of India
Most of the development assistance could be classified into three major components

Project assistance to developing countries like Bhutan in recent years.

Technical assistance to as many as 158 countries mostly in Asia and Africa under the Colombo Plan, the ITEC, the SCAAP.

Loans through the EXIM Bank, while substantial assistance(under the Colombo Plan, ITEC and SCAAP) is provided through the
Ministry of External Affairs, lines of credit are provided by the EXIM Bank, which is constituent part of the Ministry of Finance

India’s assistance is called development assistance cooperation and not “aid”, cause India is not a
member of the DAC of the OECD and its assistance is not categorized as “official development
assistance”(ODA)
It’s hard to estimate India’s total assistance.

There are no consolidated estimates of India’s total assistance and the very limited data that is
available in public domain does not help one to make any clear appraisal of the magnitude,
quality and nature of assistance and assistance by sectors and activity.

In 2012 an overseas development assistance agency called Development Partnership

Administration(DPA) was set up under the Economic Relations Division of the Ministry of
External Affairs.
It is expected to help in consolidation of all outgoing overall unified administration of
development assistance flowing from various ministries.
These amounts include grants and loans, which constitute the major bulk, nearly 85 per cent.
India makes huge contributions to international organisations.
Technical Cooperation: Assistance for
Training and Development
ITEC is the major flagship programme of India’s development assistance. The assistance under
ITEC/SCAAP programme, includes six major conponets.
(a) Training civilian and defence personnel of nominees form ITEC partner countries in India.
(b)Projects and project-related activities such as feasibility studies of development projects and
consultancy services, including preparation of techno-economic surveys.
(c)Provision of experts to other countries to assist their development.
(d)Study tours for personnel nominated by recipient countries.
(e)Gifs and donations of equipment at the request of partner countries.
(f)Humanitarian assistance, including aid for disaster relief.
The focus area of the core training programme of the ITEC are categorized as:
(a) government course, eg.governance, parliamentary studies;
(b) information technology and telecommunication, management, skills and rural development, technical,
specialized areas, and environment and renewable energy.
Over the next five years, India has promised 1.87 billion dollars annually to Africa.
Summary and Conclusions
(1)India’s external assistance programme is quite old, and has grown in size, and is still growing.
(2)India is also a major aid-receiver and a net aid-giver.
(3)In terms of geographical focus, India concentrates on neighbouring countries in Asia.
(4)The preference in its aid programme is bilateral assistance; India also provides assistance on
multilateral platforms, apart from making big contributions to international organizations.
(5)India’s development assistance to South Asian countries focuses on infrastructure, health and
education, and the assistance to African countries focused more on technical training, through
assistance to infrastructure building is also rapidly growing.
An Indian model of “aid”
India believes in the spirit of SSDC, principles Panchsheel the Bandung conference, which
formed the spirit of the SSDC. SSDC is based on “the principles of solidarity, non-interference in
internal affairs”.
India’s programme is designed to promote local capacity building and ownership.
India’s expertise is based on experience of a developing country, with a long tradition of stable
democracy, and an ex-colony, which is much more relevant to other developing countries than
that of the West.
India refused to sign the Paris Declaration on Aid Effectiveness(2005), to be a part of OECD’s
DAC, and/or to align with major traditional donors and “to be seen as reproducing traditional
donor recipient hierarchies”.
The Prospects and challenges of India
Prospects: India can play a bigger role in the international arena of development cooperation
Reasons:(1)India earned a lot of goodwill from the developing countries with its programme of
assistance over several decades.
(2)India grows positively and highly and is the fourth largest economy of the world.
(3)With a large network of educational, training and research institutions in public and private
sector, India’s human capital base is strong.
(4)IT grows fast in India, and can help in escalation of India’s effors in expanding cooperation to
other countries.
(5)India is widely seen as championing and providing a range of public goods, and “has the
potential to offer more”.
Challenges:

(1)India has to increase its budget allocations for assistance, but considering
the high levels of poverty in the country. This is a indeed a big challenge.
(2)It’s hard to strike a balance between grants, loans and technical
cooperation and to balance multiple interests of the assistance programmes.
(3)There is need to maintain detailed database, and consolidated statements
of various types of aid, the sources and activities and put the database in
public domain for sound research, effective policy making and to be
transparent.
(4)There is a need for a clear statement from the government outlining
coherent long term policy of development assistance.
Discussion
(1) India aid model refused to be seen as reproducing traditional donor recipient hierarchies. It
seem to imply that the traditional aid model created a pyramid of power through aid activities.
Which model do you think is more suitable for your country, why?

(2)Through India aid model, what lessons can be learned for your country?