LATIN AMERICA CORNER
exports. The US, the principal market of Latin America has
started reducing its oil imports after the game-changing shale
revolution. On the other hand, India needs more and more
oil to fuel its high economic growth. India’s domestic crude
production has plateaued and imports have inevitably been
increasing. There is thus a clear complementarity between
India’s demand and Latin America’s supply.
India has been importing two billion dollars worth soy
oil and sunfl ower oil from South America. This helps India
to reduce the overdependence on Indonesia and Malaysia,
the monopoly suppliers who account for about 12 million
tons out of India’s total imports of 15 million. The health-
conscious Indians appreciate the South American soy and
sunfl ower oil as better than the South East Asian palm oil
which has more fat.
In recent times, South America has started supplying
pulses to India which imports about fi ve million tons a year
from countries such as Myanmar, Canada and Australia.
India is set on the course of increasing imports of
vegetable oil and pulses in the long term due to the growing
gap between domestic production and demand. Every
year, India is losing hundreds of thousands of hectares of
agricultural land to urbanisation and industrialisation. India
faces serious water shortage and the water table in the main
agricultural provinces including Punjab are going down due to
indiscriminate and unsustainable pumping of groundwater for
irrigation of water-intensive crops such as rice and sugarcane.
At the same time, the Indian population increases every year
by 15 million, equal to the population of Chile. The growing
middle class wants to eat better food, going beyond the staple
of basic cereals. On the other hand, South America has vast
tracts of arable land and can bring in millions of hectares
under cultivation. The region has abundant water reserves as
well as technology and best practices. It has the potential to
increase production to feed another 500 million more people.
This surplus agricultural capacity is useful to India’s food
security in the long term.
Indian fi rms have invested over ten billion dollars in
Latin America in sectors such as energy, pharmaceuticals,
chemicals, auto parts and IT. The Indian IT, BPO and KPO
fi rms employ around 30,000 young Latin Americans, who
appreciate the opportunity to learn and upgrade their skills.
Some of these have become entrepreneurs after gaining
experience with the Indian tech fi rms.
Latin American fi rms have invested about a billion dollars
in India in areas such as soft drinks, multiplexes, theme parks
and auto parts. Latin American software fi rms such as Globant
from Argentina, Stefanini from Brazil and Softek from
Mexico have established development and delivery centres in
India employing over a thousand Indian software engineers.
Latin America has even added value to Indian spiritual
business. Several thousand Latin Americans practice and
teach yoga, meditation and disseminate the teachings Indian
Gurus. The Argentine Band Yoga Rave sings in pure Sanskrit
in their shows performed sometimes in nightclubs. During
their performance in the nightclubs, meat, alcohol, smoking
and drugs are not allowed. Janderson Oliveira de Fernandes
of Sao Paulo came to India for spiritual enlightenment. But
he went beyond learning and became an authentic Guru
himself anointed as “Sri Prem Baba”. He has ashrams in
twelve countries around the world where he preaches Indian
spiritualism with a Brazilian touch.
In 2017-18, the Indo-Latin American trade was 34 billion
dollars. India had exported 12 billion and imported 22 billion.
The trade has the potential to reach 100 billion dollars by
2025. India and Latin America see the future not only through
these numbers but as long-term win-win partners with mutual
value addition and complementarities.
The new paradigm of Indo- Latin America economic
relations has added a real Bollywood touch too. Gustavo
Santaolalla of Argentina has composed music for Aamir
Khan’s fi lm Dhobi Ghat. Barbara Mori, a Mexican, acted as the
heroine in the Indian Film Kites. There are quite a few Indian
fi lms with acting by Latin Americans who blend naturally
with their café con leche (coff ee with milk) complexion.
* Author is a Latin America expert and former Ambassador
to Latin American countries
Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Diplomatist • Vol 7 • Issue 4 • April-May 2019, Noida • 55