India's aid diplomacy in the third world

India is often viewed as a recipient of massive aid from the western countries. Few, however, know that despite being the poorest of the developing countries of the world, it has extended a total aid of Rs 25.40 billion to various countries of the Third World.

Analysing the rationale of India's aid diplomacy, this volume observes that her aim during the fifties was to enlist support for her policy of of non-alignment. This policy graduated to economic cooperation in the wake of the growth of Indian economy and the declining trend of aid from the rich countries to the Third World during the sixties and the seventies. Examining the impact of the aid diplomacy experiment by India, the author notes that India has so far availed of only a spill-over of opportunities open to her; the scenario of India's aid diplomacy in the Third World has its weakest spot in the present bureaucratic labyrinthine administrative structure which makes the style of conducting aid diplomacy rather cramped.

This volume recommends a unified apex aid administration agency in the form of a separate government department to coordinate the work presently handled by a score of ministries and departments.