Development Co-operation Profiles: India

India’s approach to development co-operation is embedded in its foreign policy and stresses solidarity with developing countries. India’s development co-operation uses multiple instruments, including grants, lines of credit, and capacity building and technical assistance. Its areas of focus range from commerce to culture, energy to engineering, health to housing projects, information technology to infrastructure, sports to science, and disaster relief and humanitarian assistance to restoration and preservation of cultural and heritage assets.

In 2023, India held the presidency of the Group of Twenty (G20) and advanced collective G20 actions to strengthen contributions to the 2030 Agenda, which included the G20 2023 Action Plan on Accelerating Progress on the SDGs and the G20 High Level Principles on Lifestyles for Sustainable Development.

This profile presents verified data on development assistance allocation. See the Development Co-operation Profiles.

Policy

While India focused for quite some time exclusively on South-South co-operation, Prime Minister Modi is also prioritising triangular co-operation and global development co-operation efforts, including on financing for sustainable development. India has been collaborating on development co-operation with France, Germany, Japan, Norway, the United Kingdom and the United States, and has a new partnership with the European Union on bringing connectivity to Africa and Central Asia. India’s development co-operation programmes focus on Africa and CLMV countries (Cambodia, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Myanmar and Viet Nam) and include capacity-building and technical co-operation programmes.

Sectors of priority for India’s development co-operation, which involves 154 countries, are agricultural development and energy and electricity grids for rural areas. India’s co-operation goes beyond government-to-government co-operation to include civil society organisations. India’s development co‑operation aims to be demand-driven, mutually beneficial and ensure local ownership. It aims to create co-operation programmes without conditionality, building partnerships that are governed by mutual respect, diversity, care for the future and sustainable development.

During its G20 Presidency in 2023, India worked to advance global development co-operation through the concepts of “Lifestyles for Sustainable Development” and “Life Economies” and launched a new Global Alliance for Life Economies Research and Innovation, which is advancing these concepts.

Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation Programme

The Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation Programme (ITEC), which started in 1964, is a capacity-building South-South co-operation partnership with over 160 partner countries across Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Pacific and Small Island Nations. ITEC is administered by the Development Partnership Administration-II Division of the Ministry of External Affairs.

The programme facilitates the provision of study tours, the deputation of Indian experts and advanced trainings in partnership with prestigious Indian institutions such as the Indian Institute of Technology, the Indian Institute of Science and the Indian Institute of Management. The broad areas of interest include agriculture, education, investment, energy, South-South co-operation, the environment and climate change, urban planning, women’s empowerment, small and medium-sized enterprises and entrepreneurship, rural development and poverty alleviation, government function, health and yoga, food and fertiliser, textile, and trade and international market, among others.

Source: Ministry of External Affairs (2025), ITEC website, https://www.itecgoi.in/index.

Estimates of international development co-operation

The OECD estimates that India’s bilateral development co-operation reached USD 708.06 million1 in fiscal year 2023/24, down from USD 858.73 million in fiscal year 2022/23. Importantly, this amount does not include lines of credit from India to developing countries because their developmental purpose cannot be ascertained.2

In 2022, the Indian think tank Research and Information System (RIS) estimated3 that India partnered with developing countries with a total budget of USD 7.66 billion. RIS also estimated that USD 788 million was extended as development assistance in 2022.

Triangular co-operation

India’s triangular co-operation is evolving, and engagement with the OECD and Development Assistance Committee members is increasing. An example of this is a Joint Declaration of Intent signed in May 2022 by the German Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development and the Indian Minister of External Affairs to strengthen their triangular partnerships. RIS India collects data on India’s triangular co‑operation initiatives. A joint RIS India-OECD publication highlights the importance of Indian civil society organisations in implementing this co-operation modality.

Learn more about triangular co-operation.

Institutional set-up

The Ministry of External Affairs plays a pivotal role in the delivery of development co-operation, notably through its Development Partnership Administration (DPA). India’s development co-operation is delivered through various mechanisms and channels for engaging with developing countries, including the Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation Programme, the Special Commonwealth Assistance Programme for Africa, and bilateral development assistance to neighbouring and other developing countries. Various Indian ministries, institutions and programmes are also involved in development co-operation and implement projects.

The DPA, created in 2012, co-ordinates India’s bilateral development co‑operation in close collaboration with the Ministry of External Affairs’ regional divisions. It manages grants and the Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation Programme, and has four pillars:

• DPA-I deals with project appraisal for the Lines of Credit Programme and loans on concessional terms to developing countries, under the Ministry of Finance’s Indian Development and Economic Assistance Scheme. DPA-I handles all lines of credit modalities and projects in Africa, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal and Sri Lanka, as well as housing projects.

• DPA-II focuses on technical co-operation. It manages the Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation Programme, which focuses on capacity building and training of defence personnel and civilian training under the Colombo Plan for Cooperative and Economic Social Development in Asia and the Pacific, established in 1964. The programme offers customised courses as well as humanitarian assistance. DPA-II also co-ordinates South-South co-operation initiatives and other multilateral development co-operation matters, including co-ordination with international development agencies.

• DPA-III manages bilateral grants to Afghanistan, the Maldives, Myanmar, Nepal and Sri Lanka for infrastructure (except housing projects), education and health. It also supports community-based and community-driven projects in these countries.

• DPA-IV includes a humanitarian assistance and disaster relief procurement cell.

The Ministry of Finance manages multilateral assistance and exercises administrative oversight for concessional loans and lines of credit provided by the EXIM Bank.

Other profiles

Access the full list of providers at this link: Development Co-operation Profiles.

Additional resources

Ministry of External Affairs (2022), Annual Report 2021-22, Ministry of External Affairs, New Delhi, www.mea.gov.in/Uploads/PublicationDocs/34894_MEA_Annual_Report_English.pdf

Ministry of External Affairs (2023), “Development partnerships”, www.mea.gov.in/development-partnership.htm

Ministry of Foreign Affairs (2024), Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation Programme, https://www.itecgoi.in/index

Chaturvedi, S. (2021), “Why India needs an international development cooperation agency”, The Indian Express, indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/why-india-needs-an-international-development-cooperation-agency-7582421

Since 2007, India has been one of the OECD’s five Key Partners.

India participated in the DAC High Level Meeting in 2025.

The methodological notes provide further details on the definitions and statistical methodologies applied.

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Notes

← 1.  Estimates based on the Ministry of External Affairs’ Annual Report 2023.

← 2.  These estimates are conservative since the OECD cannot verify that such operations have the economic development and welfare of developing countries as their main objectives.

← 3.  See p.10 of 75 Years of Development Partnership.