Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar visited Kenya this week as part of New Delhi’s ambitions to become a major development partner to Africa. Like the G7, Jaishankar wants to challenge China’s dominance in the African construction market and position Indian contractors as a competitive, more sustainable alternative.
“Unlike China’s efforts, Indian project construction and financing in Africa is aimed at facilitating community participation and development,” said Harsh Pant and Abhishek Mishra, two analysts at the New Delhi-based foreign policy think tank Observer Foundation, in a new commentary published this week. “Indian firms rely more on African talent, and India has some other advantages over China, too,” they added.
