BOMBAY — India has granted Africa radically improved terms of trade in the clearest signal yet that it intends to compete head-to-head with China for access to the continent’s natural resources. Speaking at the inaugural India-Africa Forum Summit in New Delhi, Manmohan Singh, the Indian Prime Minister, said that tariffs would be scrapped on a host of African imports, from diamonds and copper ore to sugar cane and clothes. The abolition of duties will cover 94 per cent of the in-bound goods from 34 African nations. The summit, which is being attended by the leaders of 14 African states, is widely regarded as India’s riposte to the China-Africa Cooperation Forum of 2006, at which China unveiled $9 billion in preferential loans, export credits and other incentives to reinforce its grip on Africa’s mineral-rich regions. Mr Singh yesterday tabled a rival set of financial sweeteners including plans to more than double credit lines to Africa, to $5.4 billion, over the next five years and $500 million in state aid. The measures join an estimated $15 billion in investment in Africa from India’s corporate sector last year, much of it in mining, power and IT projects. He said: […]