ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a brief overview of the history, modalities and architecture of India’s development cooperation. Most of India’s development cooperation flows and activities have traditionally focused on its South Asian neighbours. In a small number of countries, India’s development cooperation accounts for a notable share of overall development assistance (such as Afghanistan and Nepal), and in the case of Bhutan, it comprises a significant proportion of the national budget. India’s normative framing of its development cooperation activities and agendas can be seen as a continuance of what Philippe Nel calls ‘the unfinished struggle against disrespect and humiliation’. India is one of the oldest and largest providers of South–South development assistance, but like other (so-called) ‘non-traditional’ actors, its historic role as a development partner has, until the last decade or so, been largely overlooked by the international media, academia and policy analysts.
