Britain is set to boost aid to India by 70 per cent, it has emerged, simply days after the nation launched a rocket into house.

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), which distributes support, despatched India £33.4 million in support money in 2022/23.

But the FCDO’s annual report, revealed this week, reveals that the overall is ready to rise to £57 million in 2024/25.

This shall be topped up by an as-yet-unknown quantity from the enterprise division, which often provides greater than £10 million.

The report additionally reveals that the division is funding the controversial Great Britain China Centre to the tune of £340,000 a 12 months.

Funding for the centre, which is accused of getting shut hyperlinks to the Chinese Communist Party, is ready to rise to £350,000 subsequent 12 months.

Details of the massive quantity spent on Indian support come simply days after the nation launched a spacecraft to the far facet of the moon.

Chandrayaan-3 will make India solely the fourth nation on the earth to land an object on the lunar floor.

Critics say it’s improper that Britain is growing its support price range to the nation when it’s rich sufficient to afford its personal house programme.

‘Foreign aid debacle’

John O’Connell, chief govt of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, stated: “The 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.

“To create a fairer deal for taxpayers, ministers should scrap the target and make aid available when truly needed.”

The big enhance comes as the UK and India try to reach a trade agreement. Kemi Badenoch, the Business Secretary, has been warned to not give an excessive amount of away to the nation in her eagerness to strike a deal.

In 2012, Pranab Mukherjee, the then finance minister of India, sparked anger when he described British aid money as “peanuts”.

In the identical 12 months, the British authorities pledged to finish bilateral support to India by 2016 as a part of a move away from funding middle-income countries.

But regardless of ministers giving the impression that the nation would obtain no extra money, thousands and thousands have continued to move into the nation within the type of technical help, analysis grants and investments via the Government physique British International Investment (BII).

‘Aid impact score the second-worst available’

Last 12 months the Independent Commission on Aid Impact gave the UK’s India support programme a rating of amber pink – the second-worst accessible.

The £2.3 billion of support spending between 2016 and 2021 is made up of £441 million in bilateral support, £1 billion of investments via BII, £129 million in FCDO investments, and £749 million via multilateral channels such because the World Bank.

The report highlighted one in every of BII’s investments in a midsize Indian financial institution, which it can’t identify.

The funding physique gave the financial institution £160 million between 2014 and 2020 to assist microfinance lending – that’s, lending to poor clients.

However, BII’s investments weren’t ring-fenced for microfinance and have been as a substitute used to fund the growth of the financial institution’s whole enterprise.

By March 2022, microfinance accounted for simply 9.8 per cent of loans, and bank cards accounted for 36 per cent of loans.

“This is an example of an investment without a convincing link to poverty reduction,” the report stated.

The Foreign Office was approached for remark.