UPSC Mains 2014 GS Paper 1 Q25: model answer
How does India see its place in the economic space of rising natural resource rich Africa?
What the question wants
Explain how India views its economic role in a rising, resource-rich Africa.
How to structure it
How does India see its place: India's interests and approach.
- Africa's rise
- India's interests
- India's approach
- Challenges
How to think it through
Africa has the minerals and land; India has the skills, medicines and a non-colonial image. India sees itself as a partner, not a landlord. Contrast quietly with China's debt-heavy model.
Model answer
India–Africa trade was close to 100 billion dollars in 2022–23, and India is among Africa's top trading partners and investors.
India's interests
- Energy: crude oil from Nigeria and Angola.
- Minerals: coal, copper, cobalt and rare earths for industry and clean energy.
- Food security: farmland and pulses from Mozambique and Tanzania.
- Markets for medicines (India supplies a large share of Africa's generic drugs), vehicles and IT services.
- Strategic: Indian Ocean security, UN reform support.
India's approach
- Partnership based on capacity building: lines of credit, ITEC training, Pan-African e-Network.
- India–Africa Forum Summits since 2008; Africa's G20 membership backed by India in 2023.
Challenges
- China's much larger investment and infrastructure loans.
- Weak shipping and air links, piracy and conflict in some regions.
- Slow project delivery on Indian lines of credit, which hurts India's image.
India sees its place as a development partner, not an extractor: a country with a shared colonial past, a large diaspora in East Africa and a model of demand-driven cooperation that Africa can trust.
Draw: Map of Africa with India-linked resources marked.
Keywords, cases and data to drop in
IAFS, lines of credit, ITEC, AfCFTA, Pan-African e-Network, African Union in G20.
Where most answers lose marks
- Treating Africa as only a resource source; India's approach is partnership.
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Question text as printed in the official UPSC Civil Services (Main) question paper. The model answer is original Battle IAS work; use it to learn structure, not to memorise.
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