News-1 Jan 13: UK halts further aid to India

NEWS - Jan 2013

UK halts further aid to India:

THE DETAILED FULL STORY: The government yields to domestic pressure. It says all existing commitments until will be honoured.   According to The Hindu sources, succumbing to growing domestic pressure, British government on November 9, 2012 announced halt to further financial aid to India but said that all existing commitments until 2015 would be honoured. The focus will then shift to offering technical assistance and investment in private sector in poverty alleviation projects.

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                        The move, which would save Britain over the next three years, follows mounting opposition pressure within the ruling Tory party to continued financial aid to major emerging economies such as India, China and Brazil at a time when Britain itself is facing a deep economic crisis.

                        Last year Britain gave India about £ 200 million in bilateral aid besides £ 29 million in technical cooperation. Announcing the decision, International Development Secretary Justine Greening said it was taken in consultation with the Indian government during her visit to New Delhi earlier.

            “After reviewing he programme and holding discussions with the government of India earlier, we agree that now is the time to move to a relationship focussing on skills sharing rather than aid,” she said pointing out that India was ‘successfully developing’ and it was time to recognise its ‘changing place in the world’.

Fulfilling commitments: “It is of course critical that we have already made and that we continue with those short term projects already under way which are an important part of the U.K. and Government of India’s development programme,” she added.

India has long maintained that it does not need aid and would prefer more trade with Britain. The President Mr. Pranab Mukherjee, when he was Finance Minister, dismissed the money India got from Britain as “a peanut in our total development expenditure”.

 

Premature Aid Agencies: Aid agencies called the decision ‘premature’ saying that despite India’s ‘impressive’ economic growth there were still too many poor people in the country who needed a helping hand.

            “Despite India’s impressive economic progress, 1.6 million children died in India last year---a quarter of all global child deaths,” Kitty Arie, the charity’s director of advocacy, said.

“we agree that in the longer term, aid to India be phased out as the country continues to develop, but we believe that the poorest children will need our ongoing help,” said Save the Children.