Who takes the larger bite????
Welkom aan Afrika.. to Namaste India we have been doing what we do best, go to a different land and make it our home. The tiger has been constantly foraying and snarling at the dragon in the African continent. Chairman Mao (may god rest his soul) turns in his grave given the fact that the tiger is encroaching on the hidden dragon’s initiatives.
From running the diamond industry by “gujjus†in south africa, to “sindhis†swimming across to the horn of africa (I don’t think they had boats back then, yes the sindhis were involved in trade that far back!), you can find a potato and an Indian in any part of the world. India is the largest importer of rough diamonds from the continent, similarly India’s exports to the African market constitute a wide variety of products that well includes everything including snake oil I am guessing.
India is rapidly expanding in the region, and its days of playing catch up to the Chinese seem numbered. It certainly enjoys better goodwill and will soon progress from its self embraced shadow of a sidekick to the Asian Giants in terms of trade and business options that it offers to the continent. Not limiting this to speculation and surmise here are a few numbers; in its “swing to Africa policy†between 2004 to 2011, the volume of trade grew by almost 400 percent from $9.6bn to $45bn.
Indian government is equally concerned about the valued relation with Africa. In the delegation meet of 2010, India’s Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, said “Africa is emerging as a new growth pole of the world, while India is on a path of sustained and rapid economic growthâ€. Indian government is also taking measures to promote bilateral trade. The tiger and the dragon are both in it for the long haul but at the moment while the dragon is seemingly huffing and puffing its the tiger who is making the right noises, GRRROOOWWWLLL anyone ?
