GS Paper 2 10 marks · 150w 9 min Medium
India-Africa digital partnership is achieving mutual respect, co-development and long-term institutional partnerships. Elaborate.
Subtopic: International Relations · India-Africa digital public infrastructure cooperation
How to structure your answer
Introduction (digital cooperation as a pillar of India-Africa ties) → mutual respect and demand-driven approach → co-development through DPI and tele-networks → long-term institutional partnerships and capacity building → Conclusion (a distinctive, non-extractive model)
Detailed model answer
189 words · target 150 words · 9 min
Context
Digital cooperation has become a defining strand of India-Africa relations, built on India's own success with Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) — Aadhaar, UPI and the wider India Stack. The partnership is marked by mutual respect, co-development and durable institutions rather than dependency.
Mutual respect and demand-driven engagement
- India offers its DPI as a shareable digital public good, adapted to local needs rather than imposed, reflecting South-South solidarity and the spirit of the Voice of the Global South Summits.
Co-development
- Flagship connectivity projects such as the Pan-African e-Network and its successor e-VidyaBharti and e-ArogyaBharti deliver tele-education and tele-medicine across the continent.
- India has signed DPI cooperation agreements with African partners, and its open-source stacks let countries build sovereign identity and payment systems at low cost.
Long-term institutional partnerships
- Capacity building runs through ITEC training, scholarships, lines of credit and centres of excellence in IT, embedding skills and institutions locally.
- The India-Africa Forum Summit framework and the G20 push (under India's presidency) for a global DPI repository anchor cooperation in lasting structures.
Conclusion
By transferring capability rather than extracting resources, the India-Africa digital partnership advances genuine co-development and offers Africa an equitable model of digital transformation.
What an examiner expects to see
- India's DPI stack (Aadhaar, UPI, India Stack) is offered to Africa as a shareable digital public good, adapted to local needs.
- The approach is demand-driven and respectful — South-South solidarity, in the spirit of the Voice of the Global South Summits.
- Pan-African e-Network, and successors e-VidyaBharti and e-ArogyaBharti, provide tele-education and tele-medicine across the continent.
- DPI cooperation agreements and open-source stacks let African states build sovereign identity and payment systems cheaply.
- Capacity building via ITEC training, scholarships, lines of credit and IT centres of excellence embeds skills locally.
- Institutional anchors: India-Africa Forum Summit framework and India's G20 push for a global DPI repository.
- Distinctive value: transfers capability rather than extracting resources, offering an equitable co-development model.
Concrete cases, schemes and judgments
- Pan-African e-Network Project and its e-VidyaBharti / e-ArogyaBharti phase
- India Stack / Aadhaar / UPI shared as Digital Public Infrastructure
- ITEC programme training and lines of credit for African partners
- Voice of the Global South Summits and India's G20 presidency DPI agenda
- India-Africa Forum Summit as the institutional framework
Terminology to weave into the answer
Digital Public InfrastructurePan-African e-NetworkSouth-South cooperationcapacity building / ITECco-developmentGlobal South