UK trebles development aid to India

NEW DELHI, JAN 19: UK International development Minister Clare Short, who was in India earlier this week, announced a trebling of her coun...

NEW DELHI, JAN 19: UK International development Minister Clare Short, who was in India earlier this week, announced a trebling of her country’s development aid allocation to India. India currently receives around Å“100 million a year as grants from the UK. The figure is expected to reach Å“300 million by 2003-2004.

Britain has, in the last few years, chosen four “partner states” — Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal and Madhya Pradesh — as recipients of its aid to India. This follows the pattern adopted by several multilateral and bilateral agencies in recent years.

In her meeting with Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha, Short reported to have discussed problems of chanelling UK aid, some of which will in the future be earmarked as “budgetary support,” to partner states. UK is concerned that the money it allocates as grants may be transferred to states as loans from the Central government.

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Sinha, responding to Short’s preference for working with specific states, said that the Centre has an egalitarian approach towards all states. With reference to channelling of funds, he said that states were involved in the negotiating process for allocation of funds for development activity.

Department for International Development’s (DFID) stated goal is to achieve a 50 per cent reduction in the number of those living in extreme poverty by 2015. Critics of DFID’s operations in India say its goal are meaningless given that it funds projects restricted to specific areas, which do not by any means include all poorest districts in the country.

Those working in the field in Orissa and Andhra Pradesh say that DFID’s Indian operations are driven by the need to meet disbursement targets — pressure that will grow with increase in their budget — which has led them to “throw money at cockeyed projects”.