Posted on 11/09/2012 6:13:17 AM PST by Cronos
The UK is to end financial aid to India by 2015, international development secretary Justine Greening said.
Support will be phased out between now and 2015, saving about £200m ($319m), and the UK's focus will then shift to offering technical assistance.
Ms Greening said the move, which will be popular with Tory MPs, reflected India's economic progress and status.
Giving his reaction, India's foreign minister Salman Khurshid said: "Aid is the past and trade is the future."
Until last year, when it was overtaken by Ethiopia, India was the biggest recipient of bilateral aid from the UK, receiving an average of £227m a year in direct financial support over the past three years.
...
Ministers have defended the level of financial help in the past on the basis of the extreme poverty that remains in rural areas and historic colonial ties between the two countries.
Ms Greening has been conducting a review of all financial aid budgets since taking over the role in September and visited India earlier in the week to discuss existing arrangements.
'Changing place'
She said the visit confirmed the "tremendous progress" that India was making and reinforced her view that the basis of the UK's support needed to shift from direct aid to technical assistance in future.
The announcement that the UK is scrapping aid to India has been long expected and will not have come as a surprise to the Indian government.
UK International Development Secretary Justine Greening was in India early this week to meet senior Indian government officials who were briefed on the move.
India has long held the position that while it welcomes financial aid from overseas from those who choose to give it, it will never actively seek it.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...
How many former UK industries are now operating in India ?
In a few years, India may be sending financial aid to the UK.
“In a few years, India may be sending financial aid to the UK.”
yep, exactly my thought too.
No one will be sending America any aid, however. Nor Israel. Israel will be left on its own, and the countries around the world that are envious of our previous successes will gleefully greet our demise. Recommend we start learning Mandarin or Spanish or both. And fast!
India is already one of Britain’s biggest investors, if not the biggest.
Well, when they will return stolen wealth from India and Indians. They looted India for 200 years.
You going to cross-post that under your DU account?
And you.
Firstly there was no such nation as India until the British joined north and south together. Otherwise, we would still have a Moghul islamic Empire and warring Sikh and Hindu states.
Secondly, whilst I am not going to argue that the British were faultless in India, the British rule laid the foundations for India to be the rising nation and the democratic nation it is today.
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