ravager,
These resources are located in Africa,that’s the difference. The window of opportunity for India to form strategic partnerships to exploit these resources is rapidly closing. The major players are still the West and increasingly China.
The next twenty years will produce African Governments that are more attentive to the needs of their people - not out of choice but of necessity. Africa has a ‘middle class’ of 313 million and this figure could easily double in the next few decades.
I live in Africa’s most populous nation and I observe these changes first hand on a daily basis. We built infrastructure for gas export not factoring the growth of the internal market. After the infrastructure was done we found out that our priorities were wrong and we should have focused more on the internal market.
Oxfam works in India (http://www.oxfamindia.org/)and so does UNICEF (http://www.unicef.org/india/).
About the growth in the energy sector,the barriers are less structural than political. The Niger Delta crisis is a significant contributor to the low growth figures. But with new production in Ghana, the expected liberalisation of the Libyan Oil sector after Gaddafi, political resolution of the Niger Delta crisis and production in Angola I expect high growth this decade. (Sudan is a big question mark).
The resources were always located in Africa. One thing Africa was never short of was natural resources. What they never had was political stability. Except for a few countries most of African continent is at best chronically ill and struggling and at worst dysfunctional and devastated by internal strife. The natural resources hardly ever helped bring up the economy out of poverty. Africa was always historically the land that was exploited first by the Arabs, then the West and now the Chinese. What makes you think the fate of Africa will be different this time because the Chinese are coming in now?
“The next twenty years will produce African Governments that are more attentive to the needs of their people - not out of choice but of necessity.”
That “necessity” was 20 years ago, not 20 years hence.
“Africa has a ‘middle class’ of 313 million and this figure could easily double in the next few decades.”
The 300 million or so middle class out of a 1 billion is only good on paper. The middle class is spread over a huge 30 million sq km land mass that comprising of 54 countries. It is not a single entity and does not constitute a market. A better organised, much more politically stable, and economically dynamic ASEAN has only 10 member country. Several half heated attempt at creating African union on similar lines ultimately went nowhere.
“Oxfam works in India (http://www.oxfamindia.org/)and so does UNICEF (http://www.unicef.org/india/).";
Oxfam also works in US and UK for that matter. http://www.oxfam.org.uk/
http://www.oxfamamerica.org/
My point was Indian does not have an international food aid program like Africa. In Africa that is a bigger priority then investments in alternative energy.
Libyan Oil, Niger Delta crisis and Sudan are a lot of ifs