£280m aid to India axed... but we won’t keep money

BRITAIN is to axe its £280million-a-year programme of aid to India from 2015 – but the money will still be sent abroad.

Aid to the booming country, which has its own space programme, will be reviewed by International Development Secretary Justine Greening.

It could be halved before 2015, when it finally ends, after a review last year warned the country was too rich for handouts.

But the funds will still be diverted to aid projects abroad, rather than helping to ease the deficit or fund public services here.

Miss Greening is due to visit India this week for talks with politicians, and is believed to be poised to offer to replace ‘ aid with trade’.

The UK would continue to provide India with expertise and technical assistance, it is understood.

Miss Greening, who is known to be sceptical about the efficacy of handouts, opened discussions on aid with the Indian government during a World Bank meeting in Tokyo last month.

However, she is restricted in slashing her department’s overall aid budget because David Cameron has pledged to donate 0.7 per cent of Britain’s GDP to the developing world by 2013.

Overseas aid spending is already set to reach £12billion by 2014, while the budget has been increased by 35 per cent at a time when other government departments are facing massive cuts.

A spending review published by the Department for International Development last year concluded that aid to Russia, China and India would have to be cut. Instead, it recommended that money should be diverted to poorer countries such as Kenya and Somalia.