2.3. Development Partnership

♤ Many countries may have higher bilateral trade with Africa, but what sets apart India’s engagement with Africa is its focus on innovative capacity building programmes and the deployment of ICT, the country’s forte, to help build a knowledge economy in the African continent.

♤ India launched Pan African e-Network Project (PAENP), in 2009, Conceived by former President of India, A.P.J Abdul Kalam the project, with a budget of approximately US$ 125 million, is entirely funded by India and aims to provide satellite connectivity, tele- education and tele-medicine services to the African countries. It also supports e- commerce, e-governance, infotainment, resource mapping and various other services. The project has presently been commissioned in 47 countries.

♤ During the IAFS- 3 in 2015, India offered Africa a concessional credit of $10 billion over five years and a grant assistance of $600 million.♤ India had committed $7.4 billion in concessional credit and $1.2 billion in grant since the first India-Africa Summit in 2008, and creating:♤ African countries and India are extraordinarily rich in bio-diversity, with species of rare flora and fauna which are threatened both by over-exploitation as well as by Climate Change.Figure 12.3 Pan-African e-network ♤ Terrorism has affected a large swath of the continent.