The Union Cabinet on Wednesday evening Meet approved the opening of 18 new Indian missions in Africa with an intention to make bigger India's footprints in the resource-rich continent.

Worth mention here this initiative is taken by   Modi-led-Cabinet because China has been trying to increase its presence in the under-developed continent.

The new Indian missions will be set up over four years, from 2018 to 2021, the government said in a statement. It said the new Indian missions will be opened in Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Mauritania, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Swaziland and Togo. Currently, India has 29 resident missions in Africa.

"The decision will enhance India's diplomatic outreach in the African continent and allow India to engage with Indian diaspora in African countries," the government said in a statement.

This official statement further added that the opening of new missions is also a step towards put into service the vision of enhanced co-operation and engagement with Africa.

In a separate decision, the Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has given its approval for closure of the India Development Foundation of Overseas Indians (IDF-OI).

The decision was taken to improve synergies in channelizing the Indian diaspora's contributions to India's flagship programmes such as the National Mission for Clean Ganga and the Swachh Bharat Mission, the government stated.