As India aims to become the world’s third-largest economy by 2030 and actively seeks to strengthen its ties with Latin America, Colombia risks missing out on the opportunity to benefit from this partnership without a strategic approach.

While the nature of the trade relationship between Latin America and India is similar to the Sino-Latin America relationship in its reliance on raw materials, hype over India as a potential alternative to China for the region is largely unfounded.

India’s entry for the Oscars, Visaaranai, didn’t win. But it helped direct attention to a real and all-too-often overlooked problem: police abuse and impunity.

India’s Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) has consistently failed to meet its objectives in reducing poverty. The reason: the unrealistic expectations and burdens placed on the under-trained community leaders.

India is looking to adopt Latin America’s famous and popular conditional cash transfer (CCT) programs. But are they transferable to a country of 1.2 billion people, in which 363 million of them live below the poverty line, 260 million live in rural areas?

While much of the media and policy attention has focused on China, Russia and Iran’s involvement in the region—often with handwringing or finger pointing—India has become a player in its own right. Unlike China, the South Asian giant’s economic interests and practices in the region are more compatible to Latin American economies and development.