India's development discussed at African Union meet

India's progress came up for discussion when a panel at the African Union deliberated upon the UN's Human Development Index.

The Human Development Index (HDI) Report 2013, which is a series of global Human Development Reports published by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), reveals that India has shown progress on different fronts.

The report was discussed Sunday as part of the 50th anniversary of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), now called African Union.

The discussion had the theme of African renaissance in the context of the rise of the South.

The panelists were UNDP administrator Helen Clark, former Nigeria president Oulsengun Obasanjo, former president of Ghana John A. Kuffour, and African Union Commission's (AUC) former commissioner of economic affairs Maxwell Mkwezalamba.

The report states that for the first time in 150 years, the combined output of the developing world's three leading economies India, Brazil and China is about equal to the combined Growth Development Plan (GDP) of the longstanding industrial powers of the North -- Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Britain and the US.

"The rise of the south is not only about the group Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) but it is also about a whole range of countries across continents which has been managing the economic growth and the human development progress together," said Helen Clark.

She added that the connection between trades, investment, migration, mobile phones, ICTs in general and the growing connection between Africa and the world is also driving development.

For instance, Indian firms are supplying affordable medicines, medical equipments and communications technology products and services to countries in Africa. The same is true for Chinese, Brazilian and South African companies, whose investments in the Sub-Saharan Africa rose highly over the years.

(Hadra Ahmed can be contacted at hadraahmed@gmail.com)