"India's Research and Information System for Developing Countries" (RIS) is a major initiative in the area of South-South Cooperation. Discuss. (UPSC CSE Mains 2018 - Political Science and International Relations, Paper 2)
Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS) is a New Delhi–based autonomous policy research institute that specialises in issues related to international economic development, trade, investment and technology. RIS is envisioned as a forum for fostering effective policy dialogue and capacity-building among developing countries on global and regional economic issues. The focus of the work programme of RIS is to promote South-South Cooperation and collaborate with developing countries in multilateral negotiations in various forums. RIS is engaged across inter-governmental processes of several regional economic cooperation initiatives. In recent years, the global dialogue on South-South Cooperation (SSC) has become more prominent in discussions on international cooperation, highlighting the importance of SSC in the global arena.
Following are the major initiatives taken by India:
- Research going on regarding Global Economic Governance: Research programme of RIS in this area largely focuses on developments in various multilateral forums, in particular on the World Trade Organization. The outcome of this research helps the developing countries mostly in Africa and South America to handle the complicated issues on the various rounds of talks at WTO.
- Regional/Bilateral Economic Integration: India has been actively engaged in deepening and widening its economic engagements with major economies of East and South East Asia to make an Asian Economic Community.
- Helping LDCs through forums of SSC: RIS research programme has always given importance to articulating the viewpoints of the developing world in international forums.
A number of specific issues being dealt with are:
- Global System of Trade Preferences (GSTP)
- India-Brazil-South Africa (IBSA) Partnership
- The partnership among Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) (Although Russia is not a part of Global South)
- Biotechnology and development
- South-south cooperation regarding the Digital divide
- Intellectual property rights and health issues
- Indian Ocean Rim-Association for Regional Cooperation (IOR-ARC)
Asia Cooperation Dialogue (ACD) The desire of Southern economies to harness the potential of their cooperation has led to the conception and formalisation of several platforms such as India-Africa Forum Summit (IAFS), BRICS, IBSA, New Development Bank and Forum on China-Africa Cooperaon (FOCAC) including many others and India is not only participating on all these forums but also taking a lead to help other member countries.
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