UK will maintain contested £1 billion India aid

[Karachiite]

A review of UK aid policy is to maintain more than £1bn of help for India, in spite of the nuclear-armed state’s rapid emergence as a world power with its own aid and space programme.

Andrew Mitchell, international development secretary, told the Financial Times that British aid would remain flat at £280m a year until 2015 but shift to more investment in private enterprise.

The decision to rule out big cuts will infuriate some Conservative MPs who see no justification for the aid while slashing defence or anti-poverty spending at home. India is growing at 8.5 per cent a year, gives aid to Africa, boasts more than 126,000 US dollar millionaires and is one of only six nations with satellite launch capability.

Yet, in what Mr Mitchell describes as a “development paradox”, poverty remains rife and the country is home to a third of the world’s malnourished children. “Some people in both the UK and India have been asking whether the time has come to end British aid to India,” Mr Mitchell said. “In my view we are not there yet.

“India has more poor people in it than the whole of sub-Saharan Africa. If you’re going to achieve the [UN] millennium development goals, you have to make big progress in India.”

The UK bilateral aid review has inflamed postcolonial sensitivities in New Delhi. Indian ministers were indignant over the allegedly patronising review and threatened to decline British money rather than wait for Westminster to decide.

Mr Mitchell will withdraw development assistance from some “emerging economies”, including Serbia, Moldova, Cambodia and Vietnam. As aid to India falls in real terms while assistance to other nations rises sharply, it will be overtaken by Ethiopia as Britain’s biggest bilateral aid programme.

By 2015 about half of direct grant aid to India will be replaced by “pro-poor” private investment including through CDC, the state-owned development finance group. The bulk of the programme will be targeted on three poor states: Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Orissa.

FT.com / UK / Politics & policy - UK to give £1bn to India in spite of cuts

 

[Roybot]

Kaise aid bhai, humara jitna loot ke legaye ab installments mein lauta rahein hain

 

[tallboy123]

You're right roy,
first loot hundred of billions...
Then give it back in very small amount and say it as aid and get name..
But ever they do every generation of our country will read our history and we hate them..

 

[tallboy123]

We don't want this fckin aid..And we didn't ask for it.. uk is trying to get sympathy and trying to score points

 

[Paan Singh]

^^^
A Raja looted india more than british

 

[Punjabbi Munda]

If they are more towards investing in private enterprise,how can it be aid!!

 

[prototype]

Now this will highly infuriate British citizens,they r cutting down forces like never seen before,and their govt is aiding a country which is lavishly spending on Defense and Space,and by the way how does investing in pvt sector amount's to aid.

 

[Agnostic_Indian]

the situation in bihar etc must have improved a lot by now..or is it still the same ?

 

[tallboy123]

^^^
A Raja looted india more than british

no dude,
british looted 1000 more than a raja

 

[Punjabbi Munda]

the situation in bihar etc must have improved a lot by now..or is it still the same ?

well i ve never been to bihar,but my tutor is from there and he is from whom i came to know that Bihar has made remarkable progress and i think it can be seen a bit through media as well.However i feel Orissa still is very backward.

 

[MINK]

Amount of British aid received in India

Amount of British aid received in Pakistan

British aid received per capita: India
0.25 pound per person

British aid received per capita: Pakistan
0.88 pound per person


Average Pakistani received more more than three times of British aid than their Indian counterpart does.



Source: DFID (British Aid)

 

[Hafizzz]

We don't want this fckin aid..And we didn't ask for it.. uk is trying to get sympathy and trying to score points

India is a POOR country and needs aid !!!

 

[ajay]

UK wants closer relations with India and is seeking investment, £1bn is a small price to pay and all countries offer Aid as a tool

 

[Paan Singh]

India is a POOR country and needs aid !!!

if u will come then this poor country will also give u aid

 

[Brotherhood]

Scam-dog millionaires 13 June 2010

Crooks pocket Indian aid as UK faces £66bn cuts

Gethin Chamberlain

MILLIONS of pounds of taxpayers' money sent to India to educate poor children is falling into the pockets of crooked officials in the country.

A News of the World investigation has uncovered corruption on an incredible scale after our Government poured in £340MILLION aid.

It went to a multi-billion schools project blasted by Indian inspectors as fraudulent and riddled with malpractice.

One audit of money earmarked for the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan project found that £70 MILLION had vanished.

Cash has been snaffled by officials running the massive scheme covering schools for India's 350 million children under 14, according to a report by India's Human Resource Development Ministry.

One report by India's Auditor General said almost £14million had been spent on items that had nothing to do with schools.

Cash meant for kids' education has been blown on luxuries. We discovered that officials throughout the country had used it to buy NEW CARS and in one instance aid cash was spent on FOUR LUXURY BEDS costing a total of £17,754 as well as a £3,803 computer, AIR CONDITIONERS, FAXES, PHOTOCOPIERS and 7,531 COLOUR TELEVISIONS - the last thing children with no basic sanitation need - have mysteriously been bought for classrooms and offices despite some having NO ELECTRICITY.

Tens of thousands of pounds were allocated to 2,369 schools that didn't even exist and inspectors found that three vast payments earmarked for the flagship project and amounting to £168,000, were unexplained.

And £150,000 was paid into a mystery bank account with no reason given. India's individual 28 states - given millions to educate their children - are also believed to be hanging on to cash to divert it elsewhere.

In the Bihar state, a report by the Institute of Public Auditors of India found that children were being taught in open fields, because money had not been passed on for classroom repairs.

In Muzzaffarpur they found that only £400,000 out of an allocated £1.1million had gone to schools. One woman involved in the widespread fraud has been accused of siphoning off up to £6MILLION from the funds, even using £44,000 of it to make a MOVIE directed by her son.

Auditors checking individual state accounts found sums up to £4.8MILLION missing from the books.

Despite all this, the British Department for International Development (DfID) had planned to donate millions more to the project in the next three years.

But with Chancellor George Osborne preparing to axe up to £60billion of public spending at home - on top of £6billion of cuts already announced - taxpayers might wonder why we continue to give money to a country steeped in such corruption.

India is the single largest recipient of UK overseas aid, receiving £1BILLION between 2003 and 2008. Two years ago Gordon Brown cemented that position when he agreed to give the former colony another £825MILLION by 2011. But the Indian economy is already ranked 11th in the world rich list and is predicted to OVERTAKE the British economy as the world's fifth largest by 2015.

Yet still the DfID has poured in general aid - such as £13million to help the government of Bihar state deliver public services and £18million to support local businesses while back home our own small businesses struggle to survive.

Our coalition government has committed to ring-fence the DfID aid budget. But Prime Minister David Cameron has promised to bring "greater transparency and accountability" adding: "Too much aid is lost to corruption."

Last night Andrew Mitchell, Secretary of State for International Development, was stunned by our findings.

He said: "These are shocking allegations. I have launched an immediate inquiry to ensure British aid money has not been misused. The new British Government will have a zero tolerance policy to corruption."

The cash must go to the poor

By Andrew Mitchell, International Development Secretary

THESE are shocking allegations and I have launched an immediate inquiry to ensure British aid money has not been misused.

When I took up this job a month ago I made a pledge to taxpayers that they must know that for every pound of their money, we will get 100 pence of value.

Now I'm reviewing every single one of the Department for International Development's country programmes to ensure we are giving aid to where it's most needed - to help the world's poorest people.

But I want to go much further. This is why last week I announced a new independent aid watchdog - to scrutinise aid on the taxpayers' behalf. In future we will also publish all details of the department's spending on our website.
cuttings-june13notw-2010

If this is true, India should stop taking aid from UK, otherwise it will be like feeding the crooks instead of helping the needed.