Abstract
Central Asia, a region comprising five former Soviet Union members, has become a centre of attention amidst waning Russian influence, expanding China’s economic, security and strategic interests and the efforts of the countries in the region to diversity their foreign and economic policies beyond being resource export-dependent economies. However, in these discourses, India’s stake, economic and energy linkages, historical cultural and societal relations and promises are understudied. The book Elephant on the Silk Road: Sectors of Promise for India and Central Asia is a useful resource to fill this gap, particularly focusing on unrealised prospects of economic integration between India and Central Asia.
The book is divided into five parts with 13 chapters dealing with strategic dimensions, connectivity, trade-related issues and overall economic ties between India and Central Asia. It also provides elaborate data on trade relations in each sector and commodities and services with each of the five countries, which are a useful reference for readers.
Part one locates the significance of economic relations with Central Asia by surveying economic cooperation and initiatives in recent years. It underlines the evolving ‘regional framework’ in India’s ties with Central Asian countries and rightly emphasises the utility of such a policy framework, going beyond bilateral relationships (p. 11). While discussing an increasing focus on regional focus among the countries in the region, the chapter contextualises India’s recent initiatives, namely, the ‘Connect Central Asia Policy’ and the leadership summit hosted by India.
Part two, consisting of two chapters, lays down the status and progress of connectivity—transport and energy connectivity. While discussing regional connectivity projects between Central Asia and other regions, for example, European Union via the Caucasus, China’s Belt and Road Initiatives, it describes the International North–South Transport Corridor and other connectivity projects undertaken by India and underlines their importance in India’s relationship with the Central Asia Region (CAR). It also highlights the obstacles to India’s efforts to enhance connectivity, namely, geographical and geopolitical and a lack of progress within the CAS to expedite and make customs seamless. While describing the projects undertaken by India in recent times, especially through Iran and Afghanistan, the authors rightly argue that Iran remains central to India’s efforts to overcome geographical barriers to connect with CAS. It provides a detailed description of the Chabahar project with elaborate data to apprise readers of its status and significance.
Part three, consisting of eight chapters, identifies sectors where India and CAR can expand their economic ties. These sectors are pharmaceuticals and healthcare, textiles and related products, agriculture, engineering and electronics, leather industry, energy and petrochemicals, construction, tourism and higher education. Taken together, these chapters provide a detailed overview of existing economic ties and initiatives undertaken, particularly in the last decade. Read with the Appendices, these chapters are the main strength of the book wherein it has collected a useful set of data, ready to be used by policymakers, industries, scholars and general readers. The analysis of the potential for future economic cooperation is arranged sector-wise as well as identifies the existing status of cooperation in each sector and identifies prospects for each country in individual chapters.
While the previous part identifies the areas where India and CAR countries should explore the potential for cooperation, part four takes up the issue of non-tariff measures and trade-related issues. Particularly, while highlighting that CAR countries lack of the capacity to develop and enforce trade and related regulations, the chapter emphasises on how India can help build the capacity of these countries in issues such as digitalisation, banking and technology for trade facilitation. The authors rightly identify what Indian IT companies can do in this regard given the fact that they have huge resources and technological know-how to enhance capacity.
Finally, part five provides a detailed overview of economic ties between India and CAR countries by discussing bilateral relations with each country. It also provides detailed data on trade in the last decade and identifies trade barriers.
The book, therefore, adds to the existing knowledge between India and CAR countries in the following ways. One, given that CAR countries retrying to evolve a regional framework among themselves as well as other countries are trying, namely, China, the EU and Russia, also have regional policies towards the region, the authors’ identification of evolving characteristics and trends in India’s regional policy framework towards the region is an apt description. Two, the book provides a great deal of data on economic ties between India and CAR countries as a whole, and bilaterally, it is a useful resource for a range of audiences. Three, by making the economic ties at the centre of analysis, the book identifies the potential for further cooperation in a range of sectors where India holds promise. However, the book could have added more if it had compared India’s approach to other countries such as China and contextualised it in a separate chapter.