Research

This project analyses the under-appreciated role of natural resources in India’s development cooperation in Africa. Its central question concerns how state-business relations and India’s natural-resource strategies affect development cooperation. This area is under-analysed in the literature on India-Africa relations, something that is surprising given the degree to which oil, gas and minerals trade features in India-Africa economic relations. The project studies the degree to which concern for natural-resource extraction and trade influence foreign-policy choices, including the investment in bilateral relations and creation of international partnership schemes like the Asia-Africa Growth Corridor or International Solar Alliance. Simultaneously, the project examines the key role played by India’s private sector in forging foreign policy in the context of India-Africa relations. The project will  therefore unearth new knowledge about India’s development cooperation and what, as well as who, drives its decision making. In turn, this will generate theoretical insights about arguably mercantilist strategic interests, the nature of the state-business relations that are embedded in India’s African development cooperation, and its overarching rhetorical framework of South-South Cooperation. Overall, the project will provide a deeper conceptual understanding for the how and why of India-Africa development cooperation in the African context. 

Name of researcher:
Dr Barnaby Dye, University of Manchester  

Professor Ricardo Soares de Oliveira, University of Oxford