{"id":272551,"date":"2023-08-24T05:02:10","date_gmt":"2023-08-24T05:02:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=272551"},"modified":"2023-08-25T07:40:45","modified_gmt":"2023-08-25T07:40:45","slug":"britain-to-increase-aid-to-india-by-70-days-after-it-launches-space-mission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=272551","title":{"rendered":"Britain to increase aid to India by 70% days after it launches space mission"},"content":{"rendered":"

TVP World \u2013 July 20, 2023<\/strong><\/h1>\n

The British Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office (FCDO), responsible for aid distribution, provided India with GBP 33.4 million in 2022-23. The FCDO revealed in its annual report this week that it intends to boost that figure to GBP 57 million in 2024-25.<\/p>\n

The report disclosing the 70% increase in foreign aid comes less than a week after India launched a rocket into space at a cost of GBP 57.7 million<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The funding from the FCDO will be added to by an as-yet-unknown amount from the business department, which typically amounts to at least GBP 10 million.<\/p>\n

The report also details funding for the controversial Great Britain-China Centre, an executive non-departmental public body, amounting to GBP 340,000 a year.<\/p>\n

Funding for the center has stirred up emotions owing to its alleged ties to the Chinese Communist Party,is set to rise to GBP 350,000 next year.<\/p>\n

Critics of the vast sums provided in aid for India have highlighted the country\u2019s ability to launch a spacecraft to the far side of the moon. Indeed, Chandrayaan-3 will make India only the fourth country to land an object on the moon.<\/p>\n

Some observers have questioned why Britain would enlarge its aid budget to a country that is wealthy enough to have its own space program<\/strong>, with some noting that Britain\u2019s PM Rishi Sunak has parents of Indian Punjabi descent.<\/p>\n

Foreign aid policy<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\u201cThe foreign aid debacle has been allowed to carry on for far too long. Arbitrary spending targets have seen untold millions sent abroad to fund spurious projects in countries with larger economies than our own,\u201d said John O\u2019Connell, chief executive of the Taxpayer\u2019s Alliance.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo create a fairer deal for taxpayers, ministers should scrap the target and make aid available when truly needed,\u201d O\u2019Connell added.<\/p>\n

The 70% increase coincides with the U.K.\u2019s current efforts to reach a trade agreement with India.<\/p>\n

In 2012, the British government stated that it would end bilateral aid to India by 2016, as part of a broader policy of removing aid from middle-income countries.<\/p>\n

However, the policy has been to the contrary, with millions continuing to be sent through technical assistance, research grants, and investments through the Government body British International Investment.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While India\u2019s moon landing is a landmark to be applauded, it also raises serious questions. Britain just increased it annual aid to India by 70 percent to \u00a357 million for 2024-2025. The thing is India\u2019s moon landing also cost \u00a357 million. So why is the UK effectively subsidizing India\u2019s space program? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-272551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-Current_Affairs"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272551","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=272551"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272551\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":272554,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272551\/revisions\/272554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=272551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=272551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=272551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}