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Paper short abstract:

Human resource development is claimed to be at the heart of India's engagement with Africa, whether in training, scholarships, institutional or non-state development. African perspectives on India's engagement with Africa are reviewed through data from Ethiopia, Rwanda, Tanzania, and India.

Paper long abstract:

From Nehru to Modi, human resource development has been claimed to be at the heart of India's engagement with Africa. This can be illustrated from the thousands of African civil and military professionals annually in India for courses through Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation, the thousands of public and private long-term students in India, and the Indian NGO training schemes in Africa such as Solar Mamas, as well as the wide range of Indo-African specialist institutes pledged by India to the African Union since 2008. Furthermore, the roll-out of the re-worked Pan-African E-Network as Indian Global Health and Global Education takes place in 2019, but will continue to target Africa amongst other continents. India's cultural and social media presence in Africa is also increasing. Although India, unlike China, does not have an official African Policy, a great deal more is known about India's discourse on Africa, including on its involvement with Japan in the Asia-Africa Growth Corridor, than is known about African policies towards India, whether at state, regional or African Union levels. The present research reports on African perspectives on Indian engagement with the continent from a variety of users of or participants in India's aid and soft power. These include publicly and privately funded African students in India, as well as returnees in Africa, private sector partners, India-Africa institutional collaborations, and non-governmental organisations. The data are drawn from fieldwork in India, Tanzania, Rwanda and Ethiopia.