Latin America and Asia's other giant: India
According to the Inter-American Development Bank, Latin America is an easy target for cyber-attacks because the region has no cyber infrastructure to resist or prevent them. It is in this context that some 20 Indian information technology (IT) companies employ more than 40,000 people in Latin America. These companies are driving the digitization of the region, using machine learning and artificial intelligence to take the region to Industry 4.0.
India's brand in Latin America is through 'sophisticated' investments in the services and manufacturing sector, stimulating value-added sectors (a contrast to China's investments in raw materials). One Indian auto parts company alone, the Samvardhana Motherson Group, has 27 manufacturing plants in Latin America employing 25,000 people. The bottom line? Indian investment creates far more jobs on average.
The India-Brazil relationship is probably the most important in the India-Latin America branch of relations, and the foreign minister's visit consolidated the various interests in bilateral ties, including the expansion of the India-Mercosur partial scope agreement. In Paraguay, the foreign minister inaugurated the new Indian embassy in Asuncion - India's fifteenth embassy in Latin America and the Caribbean.
