UK to stop financial aid to fast-growing India

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   UK to stop financial aid to fast-growing India
   

Britain will stop giving financial aid to India by 2015, the Government has said, marking a shift in ties between the one-time imperial power and its fast-growing former colony.








India is now the third largest investor in Britain and its companies own flagship brands including Jaguar Land Rover Photo: Paul Grover





6:06PM GMT 09 Nov 2012

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The move follows anger at handouts to an economy that is Asia's third largest and has a space programme, at a time of spending cuts and economic gloom in the UK.


"It's time to recognise India's changing place in the world," International Development Secretary Justine Greening said in a statement that estimated savings of £200m by 2015.


Existing programmes will be completed by that date and Britain will make no new cash commitments, Reuters reported.


India became independent from British rule in 1947. It is now the third largest investor in Britain and its companies own flagship brands including Jaguar Land Rover.


Despite India's rapid economic development over the past decade it suffers deep pockets of severe malnutrition and extreme poverty.



Related The move is unlikely to anger the Indian government, whose former finance minister described Britain's aid contribution to India as a "peanut". In 2011, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced a $5bn aid credit line for Africa.



Controversy over the aid program flared after former International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell said last year the £280m annual assistance was partly about "seeking to sell the Typhoon".

India later entered into exclusive negotiations with France's Rafale fighter, rejecting the British-backed plane for an estimated $15bn contract