Britain will continue to provide more than a billion pounds to India despite political pressure to cut aid in light of the Asian country’s booming economy.
International Development Secretary (udviklings-minister) Andrew Mitchell told the Financial Times that the government would maintain 280 million pounds of aid for India every year until 2015.
The decision of the Conservative-Liberal government in London to rule out big cuts will infuriate some, who see no justification for the aid while slashing defense or anti-poverty spending at home.
Indias economy is growing at 8,5 percent a year, the country gives aid to Africa, boasts more than 126.000 millionaires (in US dollar) and is one of only six nations with satellite launch capability.
Yet, in what Mitchell describes as a “development paradox”, poverty remains rife and the country is home to a third of the world’s malnourished children.
In June 2010, Mitchell hinted that India was becoming too rich to be worthy of so much British money. – UK money should be spent helping the poorest people in the poorest countries, he said in a review. Delhi, at the time, said that it was not worried about losing the British cash.
Mitchell has, however, been persuaded that it would be a mistake to remove help from a country that has so many living in poverty. It would mean, say officials privately, that India would have no chance of meeting its millennium development goals (2015 Målene).
Kilde: www.worldbank.org
