UK may axe aid to India - India News and Travel Times Provides India-centric and other News and Features

The UK government is likely to pull its foreign aid from India , a British lawmaker has suggested. Justine Greening, the International Development Secretary insisted that countries like India could lose funding as they became wealthier. Greening signaled she would cut the 1billion pound cheque sent from British taxpayers to India every year, despite backing the Government's controversial commitment to overseas aid spending, the Daily Express reports.

"I'm going to take a new approach to ensure that every pound we spend has the biggest possible impact," the report quoted her, as saying. "That may well mean stopping programmes where I don't think they are working and putting the money elsewhere," she added.

According to the report, Britain 's cash injection to India came under harsh criticism after it emerged the Indian's were spending millions on a space programme. Greening added that the relationship with India should move from aid to trade. "We should recognise that as countries get richer, we need to be responsible about how we transition in our relationship with them from aid to trade," she said. "Those are the discussions that I am having with the Indian government at the moment," she added.

UK may axe 1bln pound aid to 'wealthy' India