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Development cooperation:
Scientific and technological cooperation, on the one hand, and
development cooperation, on the other, have, at least in the past,
displayed marked instances of overlapping: in the framework of
scientific and technological cooperation there are institutional projects
such as the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, which are pro
moted. For many years, India has been the largest recipient of German
development cooperation. However, this holds true only in terms of
total contribution and not in terms of per capita allocation, for in the
latter case India would perhaps take a middle or even lower position.
The FRG is the third largest donor of development aid after the USA
and the UK. For 1991, the following sums were earmarked for grants:
439 million DM in the area of financial cooperation and 30.3 million
DM in the area of technical cooperation. Seen in relation to GNP, the
official development aid (ODA) makes up about 0.14%. This propor
tion will be found plummeting further, if the amortisation implied in
the financial cooperation is considered.
The development cooperation between India and Germany is
characteristically diversified. There are some well-defined priorities:
About 40% of the funds are made available for infrastructure projects
in problem sectors (chiefly energy and communication), 40% for
quick financing of urgently needed import of goods for developmen
tal work and 20% for local currency cost projects with basic needs
approach. This, by and large, satisfies India's expectations of devel
opment cooperation which has three clear-cut preferences:22
- availability of foreign exchange to cover import requirements of developmental work,
- financing of foreign exchange costs of infrastructure projects
in problem sectors,
- transfer of modern technology.
To conclude, we may raise the question whether in view of the
given economic structures and development perspectives the allocation
of funds is optimal. We ought to keep in mind that in India, as has already
been shown, a large section of the population lives below or little above
the poverty line. This results in fundamental development bottlenecks
related to demand and supply. They are of relevance for both domestic
and foreign trade. In view of this aspect, reorientation in development
cooperation is necessary, as this was introduced in part over the last few
years. For some years now poverty alleviation and environmental protec
tion have been receiving greater attention. Their proportion in the total
development cooperation is however still very low.
