Bhupinder asked: What are the different community and human resource development programmes run by India in Africa?

Ruchita Beri replies: Areas of human resource development and capacity building have been at the forefront of India’s partnership with AfricA. Vinod Kumar Vinod Kumar During the first India-Africa Forum Summit (IAFS), held in April 2008 in New Delhi, India increased the number of scholarships offered to the African students under the Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) programme from the existing 1000 to 1500 annually. During the second summit, held in May 2011 in Addis Ababa, there was a commitment made to offer scholarships to 20,000 African students in the next three yearS. Kalyanaraman India has also pledged to establish approximately 100 capacity building institutions across AfricA. Vinod Kumar Vinod Kumar At the same time, India has provided lines of credit worth US$ 7 billion on concessional terms through the Export-Import (EXIM) Bank to the African countrieS. Kalyanaraman The main objective of this initiative is to offer assistance in capacity building, skill enhancement and infrastructure development in the developing countrieS. Kalyanaraman The priority given to Africa is evident from the fact that around 60 per cent of the EXIM Bank lines of credit have been extended to the African countrieS. Kalyanaraman Posted on July 27, 2015