Trilateral Development Corporation (TDC) fund to Counter China’s BRI
STORIES, ANALYSES, EXPERT VIEWS
The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has recently launched a platform called the Trilateral Development Corporation (TDC) Fund to provide an alternative to the Chinese development partnership model that has pushed parts of the developing world to a debt trap. This would involve private sectors with state support for big-ticket investments in the Indo-Pacific region as well as other geographies.
Dipanjan Roy Chaudhury (Sr Assistant Editor with The Economic Times) reports India's Global Innovation Partnership (GIP) launched with the UK Friday at the PM Narendra Modi-Boris Johnson summit, will provide a template to use the TDC Fund for trilateral projects with other countries like Japan, Germany, France and the EU who are keen to partner with India in the innovation and development sectors.
India's contribution to GIP will be channelised through the TDC Fund. It is understood that GIP will try to scale up innovations developed by Indian enterprises to select developing countries in Africa, Asia and the Indo-Pacific.
GIP will adopt a market-driven model and it will be an equal partnership with the UK. Both sides have agreed to co-finance £75million over 14 years to implement various components of GIP. A new GIP Fund will be established to deliver the long-term capital investment component of the GIP. The Fund will also leverage additional £100 million from the market to support Indian innovations.
PM Modi has repeatedly called for supporting the internationalisation of Indian startups and taking Indian innovations global and that GIP will fill this gap and expand the innovation footprint of India.
According to Chaudhury “GIP is expected to facilitate transfer of up to 60 Indian innovations to third world countries that will improve the livelihoods of around 5,000 people and help two million people access critical goods and services. It will create an online 'E-Bazzar' platform to connect multiple stakeholders in the innovation ecosystem and promote collaborations.”