India is defying all odds. A nation in an unprecedented drive to socio-economic prosperity.

June 7, 2025, a group of journalists from East and Southern Africa travelled to India on a familiarization tour. Among them were two from Malawi. Among them was Gabriel Kamlomo, a journalist from Zodiak Media. Gabriel writes about his experiences on the nine-day visit to Mumbai, New Delhi and Agra cities.

“Many of us in the African continent are still grappling with; how to deal with payments and spurring more economic activity and secondly how to formalize our vastly informal economies. India and their digital payments, and the scale at which they are doing it with their UPI system, which is a national payment system at zero transaction cost, is amazing.

“We have a lot of mobile money in Africa but the transaction costs are quiet prohibitive. This is one area which I think Africa can borrow significantly from what India has done,” says Julians Amboko Oyombe, a journalist from Kenya’s Nation Media Group of how India has fast digitized the informal sector.

This initiative is meant to integrate small and medium business into the formal economy. It has proven instrumental in improving efficiency, access to financial services and enhancing transparency. India is doing this by leveraging digital payment systems using their Unified Payments Interface (UPI) systems.

The system has significantly impacted SMEs. They are able to easily accept digital payments through QR codes significantly reducing the need for cash transactions, increasing convenience and lowering costs.

“Digital payments create law abiding citizens. Formalizing economies increases transparency and accountability. It is also creating employment and therefore stimulates development. Democraticizing payments is critical for development and women empowerment. Sixty-five per cent of Indians live in villages but they are all using digital payment in transactions,” said Nehal Shah In-Charge Business Development Africa urging African economies to adopt the systems for their own progress.

In India, the advantage of using digital transactions has been that it now allows businesses to establish creditworthiness that makes access to financial resources easy through loans as it provides digital footprints. Women, specifically, are increasingly benefiting and proving better than men in paying back.

“These guys (Indians) are very organized. I am praying that African countries can engage them and claim a share of Indian investments because India’s economy is expanding. African countries need to partner Africa so that we follow their journey and understand how they have managed to build a big economy coming from colonization. It’s possible for a country to move from a third world to first world,” says Zimbabwe journalist Silence Mkadzaweta.

He was speaking to Zodiak when the group of journalists visited the Confederation of Indian Industry we learnt that not so much of investment is in Africa.

“The consideration of Indian traders, advocacy group etc is centered on engaging business political and academic and other leaders of society as well as the regional industry agendas,” he says.

At Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation MBC, journalists were briefed on how the city is managing rapid urbanization, provision of social services such as garbage collection, sanitation and water drainage. It is a leaf African countries can pluck with equally growing urbanization and need for social services.

Kiran S. Dighavkar, Dy. Municipal Commissioner (Solid Waste Management) for BMC told the journalists that with a population of around 13 million, the city produces an estimated 7,000 tons of waste every day.

“It is one of the challenges that we are facing but we are working tirelessly to ensure that this is done. Among the many interventions, the city is using some of the waste in the manufacturing of fertilizers. The city generates its’ own resources for use in expansion and infrastructure development in general.

“There is a lot that this country is doing that I think can be of help to rapidly urbanizing African countries Zambia, Malawi, Kenya, South Africa and the rest. Especially given the sort of population that India is dealing with which is about 1.5 billion people,” he said.

The latest India Development Update by the World Bank projects that the Indian economy will continue to grow at a healthy pace despite challenging global conditions. Clearly, the economy in India is driven by government investments in infrastructure, strong domestic consumption, digitization and offshoring.

India is now focused on reaching a trillion United States dollars in merchandise exports by 2030. Those we spoke to are talking about the need for India to diversify its export basket and leverage the global value chains. And this is in motion because production has demonstrably been upped.

The growth in India is expected to propel India to become the world’s third-largest economy by 2027.

The key factors include a large and growing consumer market, initiatives aimed at boosting manufacturing and improving the business environment and a growing population of educated Indian workforce.

“There are lessons we can learn from this; foresight, planning outside the typical metropolis. When you drive out of New Delhi, you see development projects which is planned development. I think that is where many of us African economies don’t get it right. We (Africans) have development outside the cities but it is not well planned from an urban perspective,” says Julians Amboko Oyombe.

With an annual budget pegged at 3.72 trillion US dollars, India is in active and mass production and manufacturing of almost anything; agri-produce, military soft wear and hardware, films and technology.

As we travelled, I sought views of other journalists on the team.

“We visited the Gateway of India which is a monument built in the 28th century….such a monumental building. Quiet interesting to see that a building over a 100 years is attracting tourists both domestic and international tourists,” said Zimbabwe journalist Muchemwa Mkadzaweta.

The Mumbai Film City, Bollywood, the home for ZeeWold and the other films well known in Malawi. Here you see how art, music and movies come together and contribute to the national economy. Its significant.

“The monetized content from Bollywood stands at about 60 billion US dollars, quiet staggering. And that just tells you how we can leverage arts to be an engine for economic growth and development, something which I think countries in Africa such as Nigeria are sort of getting it right the rest of us in Eastern and South can also borrow key lessons from here.

“They have the Mumbai Film City which is dedicated 521 acres just for film production. So any set that you would imagine, you would find it in Mumbai Film City. The ease of doing business from a creative stand point has really been made accessible to ordinary Indians. A lesson worth taking,” says Oyombe.

India, on the contrary, has taken its’ 1.5 billion population to the world. And she is reaping the gains. Today, India is the fifth largest economy of the world. The largest in the global South. And fast growing.

It has global foot print in almost all critical spheres of life including manufacturing boosted by growing public infrastructure; roads, bridges, roads and real estate. But India is a nation of stack contrasts, Driving around in almost all cities in India, one sees a lot of affluence and abundance alongside poverty.

The Bombay Stock Exchange is a very instrumental in the India-story to stardom.

You see, at the moment, countries in Africa are having conversation on how to deepen capital markets for small and medium businesses to raise capital. The Bombay Stock Exchange has a lot to learn from. It can help African countries deepening their capital markets. Here is what Julians Oyombe shared with me.

“The most important for me was learning how they have spurred the listing by small and medium sized businesses by easing the listing requirements and ensuring that it is less stringent than it would be in the main market. That is something that African countries can borrow from the Indians”.

For journalist Shupe Sililo, Chief Sub Editor for Zambia Daily Mail, the experience on the trip to Mumbai, New Delhi and Agra was great take away for African audiences whose nations are striving for progress.

She says the visits to Atal Seu, Ppharmaceutical Export Promotion Council of India (Pharmexcil), the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), the Observer Research Foundation, the Rail India Technical and Economic Service (Rites), the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, were simply eye-opening.

“I used to read about the Taj Mahala (a world heritage site since 1983) but I had never imagined how huge until I visited the place. I got to appreciate the story behind the place better. I saw a country very different from what I had imagined. I found the people to be very hospitable and kind, the culture to be rich and most admirable was the economic drive which I would say is in top gear.

“Standing out to me was the infrastructure development that is currently going on. High rise buildings going up, bridges and roads being constructed. And this is going on in both Mumbai and New Delhi and these are places that we visited. So I would say Africa has a lot to admire and emulate about India and so much more to learn when it comes to growing our economies,” she says.

India and Africa have lately enjoyed cordial relations climaxed by recent joint maritime exercises between South Africa, Tanzania and India “meant to demonstrate a sense of responsibility towards peace and stability.

“India has also offered training and capacity building for at least 37,000 students in the past 10 years. Sharing of knowledge, skills and good practices,” said Arun Kumar Chatterjee, Secretary-CPV & OIA adding “Unity is very key for ensuring a stable and prosperous Africa. For us, we will always do what your government of the day asks us to do because we know and we think and we assume that they are speaking on your behalf. Now of course we are looking at moving from aid to trade”.

Malawians and Indians have interacted for over 140 years.

The Indians were among the first traders coming to Malawi, at that time called Nyasaland. That was around the time of slave trade. Diplomatic relations between them have been since 1964 when Malawi got independence. The two countries share a historical background. They were colonized by the British.

In August, India will be 77-years-old as an independent nation.

The journalists from East and Southern Africa were also taken to the Asian News International (ANI) which offers syndicated news feeds, the National Museum (preservation of pre-historic articles), the Confederation of Indian Industry, Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI) (promotion of the resilience of new and existing infrastructure systems to climate and disaster risks…).

The emphasis from officials at the Observer Research Foundation sums it up well when they say India is working on claiming its rightful place in Asia and the world. India is on an unstoppable path to stardom.