Diaspora, Development Cooperation and Global Initiatives for UPSC: ITEC, ISA, CDRI, UPI Abroad, Soft Power and HADR
How UPSC Tests the Diaspora and India's Initiatives
🎯 Exam priority: Tier-2. UPSC asked: the International Solar Alliance (2016); the AI Action Summit in Paris (2025); the AI Impact Summit in New Delhi (2026, provisional key); UPI merchant payments abroad (2025); and who wrote 'The India Way' (2024). In Mains: the diaspora in the West (2023), the diaspora in the US and Europe (2020), in South-East Asia (2017) and, in 2026, the diaspora as 'a living bridge' and strategic leverage; India's global leadership image (2019).
India's soft power, its diaspora and its initiatives are asked as 'who launched what, when, and which countries joined'. This note has four boxes: the diaspora, development cooperation, India-led initiatives and soft power and HADR.
The Indian Diaspora in Numbers
The MEA's Overseas Indian Affairs division gives the numbers.
The Indian diaspora
Item | Fact (MEA Annual Report 2025) |
Size | A diaspora of over 35 million; inward remittances of USD 135 billion in 2024 |
Gulf | 9.8 million Indians in the GCC countries; the top five destinations for emigration clearance were the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman and Qatar; 4,49,110 clearances were issued, mostly to workers from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Rajasthan |
UK | About 1.864 million |
Pravasi Bharatiya Divas | The 18th convention was held in Bhubaneswar (January 2025) with over 7,500 delegates from 57 countries; Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Awards were conferred on 27 members; the Pravasi Bharatiya Express was flagged off |
Welfare schemes | Indian Community Welfare Fund (over 3.6 lakh assisted, INR 732 crore), Pravasi Bharatiya Bima Yojana (insurance to over 83 lakh migrant workers), pre-departure orientation training (over 2.25 lakh workers trained) |
Youth | Know India Programme (five editions, 193 diaspora youth) and a scholarship programme for diaspora children |
Mobility and migration | Migration and Mobility Partnership Agreements with Russia, the UK, Fiji and Australia; India chaired the Colombo Process for 2024-26 and took part in the 15th Global Forum on Migration and Development; Iran was added to the Emigration Check Required list |
Evacuations | Operation Sindhu (Iran, June 2025) brought home 3,597 Indians; the 2026 Gulf war made evacuation planning a recurring task |
Development Cooperation: ITEC, Credit Lines, DPI and Heritage
India's development partnership is demand-driven and rests on four tools.
Development cooperation
Tool | Facts |
ITEC (Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation, launched 1964) | About 14,000 training opportunities in 2025 for officials of 114 partner countries; in Defence-ITEC there were 3,900 slots; also ICCR scholarships |
Lines of credit (under the Indian Development and Economic Assistance Scheme, IDEAS) | New lines in 2025 with Angola (USD 200 million), Mongolia, the Maldives (INR 4,850 crore, in rupees) and Mauritius; projects completed in Guyana, Nicaragua, the Maldives, Mauritius and Cameroon |
Debt support | India completed the debt restructuring with Sri Lanka in April 2025 and cut the Maldives' annual repayment obligations to Exim Bank by about 40 per cent |
Digital Public Infrastructure | UPI, Aadhaar-based identity, DigiLocker and telemedicine are offered to other countries as the 'India Stack' |
Heritage restoration | ASI projects at Ta Prohm and Preah Vihear (Cambodia), Vat Phou (Laos) and My Son (Vietnam) |
Quick Impact Projects and HICDPs | Small community projects in neighbours, Africa and the Pacific |
India-Led Initiatives: ISA, CDRI, AI Summits and G20 Proposals
Here are the initiatives India leads or co-leads.
India-led initiatives
Initiative | Key facts |
International Solar Alliance (ISA) | Launched by India and France at COP21, Paris (2015); HQ Gurugram; 126 countries have signed the Framework Agreement and 112 have ratified it (2025); Angola, Vietnam and Mongolia signed in 2025. Not all UN members are in it (2016 PYQ). The US announced its exit in January 2026 among 66 organisations (secondary) |
Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI) | Launched 2019; 51 national governments and 10 international organisations by October 2025; India and France co-chair; New Zealand joined in 2025 |
Global Biofuels Alliance | Launched at the G20 Delhi summit (2023) |
International Big Cat Alliance | Its first Assembly met in New Delhi in June 2025 |
Indo-Pacific Oceans Initiative (IPOI) | Announced in 2019; see the Indo-Pacific article |
Mission LiFE and Yoga | International Day of Yoga (21 June) celebrated at the UN on 20 June 2025 with the theme 'Yoga for Earth, One Health' |
AI summits | India co-chaired the AI Action Summit in Paris (February 2025), which built on Bletchley (2023) and Seoul (2024), and hosted the AI Impact Summit in New Delhi in February 2026, which adopted the New Delhi Declaration (secondary) |
G20 proposals (Johannesburg, 2025) | Global Traditional Knowledge Repository, Africa Skills Multiplier, Global Healthcare Response Team, Open Satellite Data Partnership, Critical Minerals Circularity Initiative, a Drug-Terror Nexus initiative and a Talent Mobility framework |
Soft Power and Humanitarian Operations
Soft power and humanitarian action are the human face of this policy.
Soft power and HADR
Buddhist diplomacy: relics from Sarnath went to Vietnam for the first time (2 May-2 June 2025; 14 million devotees), and the Piprahwa relics were shown in Bhutan (8-25 November).
Culture and media: the WAVES (World Audio Visual Entertainment) Summit in Mumbai (1-4 May 2025); the UNESCO intangible heritage committee met in the Red Fort, Delhi (8-13 December); the second WHO Global Summit on Traditional Medicine (December).
First responder: Operation Brahma (Myanmar earthquake, March 2025; about 1,000 tonnes of relief by nine aircraft and five ships), Operation Sindhu (Iran evacuation), relief to Afghanistan (after the August and November earthquakes) and Sudan, Djibouti, Somalia and Syria.
Digital public goods abroad: UPI acceptance in Bhutan, France, Mauritius, Nepal, Singapore, Sri Lanka and the UAE; a UPI network-to-network link with the Maldives; IIT campuses abroad (Dubai, Zanzibar).
Further Reading
the Ministry of External Affairs Annual Report, MEA and PIB press releases and joint statements, United Nations and treaty-body websites, and an atlas — the primary sources behind every fact above.
How UPSC Could Ask This Next
Here are the questions this chapter is most likely to produce next.
How UPSC could ask this next
Initiative facts: who launched the ISA, where it is headquartered, how many ratified; what CDRI does; who co-chairs.
Summits: the Paris AI Action Summit (US and UK did not sign), the Delhi AI Impact Summit (three Sutras, seven Chakras), the G20 Johannesburg proposals.
Diaspora: Pravasi Bharatiya Divas facts, remittances, the top destination countries, OCI.
Payments abroad: UPI countries.
Mains: the diaspora as strategic leverage (2026), India as the voice of the Global South, development partnership versus aid, and India's leadership image (2019).
Test Yourself: Practice Questions and PYQs
Twelve practice questions on the diaspora, development cooperation and India-led initiatives, followed by the real UPSC Prelims questions and exact Mains questions.
Practice Questions
Q1. The International Solar Alliance was launched by India and France at
(a) the Rio Earth Summit in 1992
(b) COP26 in Glasgow in 2021
(c) the G20 Delhi summit in 2023
(d) COP21 in Paris in 2015
Show answer
Answer: (d) — Its headquarters is in Gurugram, India.
Q2. The Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI) is co-chaired by India and
(a) Australia
(b) the United States
(c) Japan
(d) France
Show answer
Answer: (d) — Launched in 2019, it had 51 national governments by October 2025.
Q3. India's ITEC programme was launched in
(a) 2014
(b) 2005
(c) 1964
(d) 1991
Show answer
Answer: (c) — It trains officials and professionals from partner countries; about 14,000 opportunities were offered in 2025.
Q4. The 18th Pravasi Bharatiya Divas Convention (January 2025) was held in
(a) Indore
(b) Varanasi
(c) Bhubaneswar
(d) Chennai
Show answer
Answer: (c) — It had over 7,500 delegates from 57 countries.
Q5. Which region received the largest number of Indian workers cleared to emigrate in 2025, according to the MEA?
(a) The Gulf countries
(b) South-East Asia
(c) North America
(d) Europe
Show answer
Answer: (a) — The UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Oman and Qatar were the top five destinations for emigration clearance.
Q6. Consider the following statements about the AI Action Summit in Paris (February 2025):
1. India co-chaired it.
2. It followed summits at Bletchley Park and Seoul.
3. The US and UK signed its declaration.
Which of the statements given above are correct?
(a) 1 and 3 only
(b) 1, 2 and 3
(c) 2 and 3 only
(d) 1 and 2 only
Show answer
Answer: (d) — The US and UK did not sign.
Q7. 'Operation Brahma' was India's relief operation after the March 2025 earthquake in
(a) Turkey
(b) Afghanistan
(c) Myanmar
(d) Nepal
Show answer
Answer: (c) — It delivered about 1,000 tonnes of relief and deployed NDRF teams and a field hospital.
Q8. In April 2025 India completed the debt restructuring process with
(a) Sri Lanka
(b) Nepal
(c) Pakistan
(d) Bangladesh
Show answer
Answer: (a) — India also cut the Maldives' annual repayments to Exim Bank by about 40 per cent.
Q9. The Prime Minister's state visit to Ghana in July 2025 was the first such visit in about
(a) three decades
(b) one decade
(c) seven decades
(d) five years
Show answer
Answer: (a) — He also became the first Indian Prime Minister to address Ghana's Parliament.
Q10. The Indian-assisted heritage restoration projects abroad include
(a) Ta Prohm in Cambodia and My Son in Vietnam
(b) Borobudur in Indonesia only
(c) Angkor Wat in Cambodia only
(d) Bagan in Myanmar only
Show answer
Answer: (a) — ASI also works at Preah Vihear (Cambodia) and Vat Phou (Laos), and has been conserving earthquake-hit pagodas at Bagan.
Q11. The theme of the 11th International Day of Yoga (2025) was
(a) Yoga for Humanity
(b) Yoga for Earth, One Health
(c) Yoga for Wellness
(d) Yoga at Home
Show answer
Answer: (b) — It was celebrated at the UN on 20 June 2025.
Q12. Consider the following countries:
1. UAE
2. France
3. Singapore
4. Germany
In how many of them is UPI accepted by merchants, as per the MEA Annual Report 2025?
(a) Only two
(b) All four
(c) Only three
(d) Only one
Show answer
Answer: (c) — Germany is not on the list.
UPSC Previous Year Questions (PYQs)
Real UPSC Prelims questions, checked against the official paper and answer key.
Q1. (2016) Consider the following statements:
1. The International Solar Alliance was launched at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in 2015.
2. The Alliance includes all the member countries of the United Nations.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
(a) 1 only
(b) Neither 1 nor 2
(c) 2 only
(d) Both 1 and 2
Show answer
Answer: (a) — The International Solar Alliance was launched at COP21 in Paris (2015) by India and France; membership is open to sunshine countries, not all UN members.
Q2. (2025) Consider the following countries:
I. United Arab Emirates
II. France
III. Germany
IV. Singapore
V. Bangladesh
How many countries amongst the above are there other than India where international merchant payments are accepted under UPI?
(a) All the five
(b) Only four
(c) Only two
(d) Only three
Show answer
Answer: (d) — UPI merchant payments are accepted in the UAE, France and Singapore among those listed; Germany and Bangladesh are not on that list.
Q3. (2025) Consider the following statements regarding AI Action Summit held in Grand Palais, Paris in February 2025:
I. Co-chaired with India, the event builds on the advances made at the Bletchley Park Summit held in 2023 and the Seoul Summit held in 2024.
II. Along with other countries, US and UK also signed the declaration on inclusive and sustainable AI.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
(a) I only
(b) II only
(c) Neither I nor II
(d) Both I and II
Show answer
Answer: (a) — India co-chaired the Paris AI Action Summit (February 2025), which followed the Bletchley Park (2023) and Seoul (2024) meetings; the US and UK did not sign the Paris declaration.
Q4. (2026, provisional key) Consider the following statements with respect to the AI Impact Summit, 2026 held in New Delhi:
1. The Summit's intellectual framework was based on three foundational Sutras: People, Planning, and Progress.
2. The Preamble of the Summit stresses Democratising AI Resources, which acknowledges the Charter for Democratic Diffusion of AI as a binding framework to support locally relevant innovation and strengthen resilient AI ecosystems while respecting national laws.
3. The New Delhi Declaration on AI Impact was structured around seven Chakras (Pillars), which included Access for Social Empowerment, AI for Science, and Secure and Trusted AI.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
(a) 2 and 3 only
(b) 3 only
(c) 1, 2 and 3
(d) 1 and 2 only
Show answer
Answer: (b) — The Delhi AI Impact Summit's three 'Sutras' were People, Planet and Progress, the Charter for Democratic Diffusion of AI is not binding, and the Delhi Declaration is built around seven Chakras (provisional key).
Q5. (2024) Who of the following is the author of the books 'The India Way' and 'Why Bharat Matters'?
(a) Bhupender Yadav
(b) Subrahmanyam Jaishankar
(c) Nalin Mehta
(d) Shashi Tharoor
Show answer
Answer: (b) — S. Jaishankar, India's External Affairs Minister, wrote 'The India Way' and 'Why Bharat Matters'.
Mains Practice Questions
Use these to frame full-length answers. You don't have to answer one exactly — they show the angles UPSC tests, so let them guide which points you cover.
"India's global diaspora acts as a living bridge, as a critical economic factor and knowledge network in transforming cultural heritage into geopolitical influence and strategic leverage worldwide." Critically examine this statement.
Indian diaspora has scaled new heights in the West. Describe its economic and political benefits for India.
"The long-sustained image of India as a leader of the oppressed and marginalised nations has disappeared on account of its new found role in the emerging global order." Elaborate.
Evaluate India's development partnership model (ITEC, lines of credit, DPI) against the Belt and Road Initiative.
UPSC Mains — Previous Years’ Questions on this topic (last 10 years)
These are the actual GS Mains questions UPSC has asked on this theme — real proof of how, and when, it is tested. Try to write a full answer to each.
2026 (GS-II): "India's global diaspora acts as a living bridge, as a critical economic factor and knowledge network in transforming cultural heritage into geopolitical influence and strategic leverage worldwide." Critically examine this statement.
2023 (GS-II): Indian diaspora has scaled new heights in the West. Describe its economic and political benefits for India.
2020 (GS-II): 'Indian diaspora has a decisive role to play in the politics and economy of America and European Countries.' Comment with examples.
2017 (GS-II): Indian diaspora has an important role to play in South-East Asian countries' economy and society. Appraise the role of Indian diaspora in South-East Asia in this context.