Remind me why we give India billions each year...?

[Funk]

They have an evidently well-developed space programme; surely if they have money to search for water on the moon, they don't need the billions of our tax money that we donate to them?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/827184...

[selwonk]

Didn't the US stop sending aid to India in the 70s?

[selwonk]

Having had a dig around, it appears that we don't gift that much aid to India any more:

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/105...

[Funk]

It feels like giving money to a friend who says they desperately need it, and then seeing that the following week they've bought a plasma TV with the cash and that they actually don't need it at all.

Why, when our country's in the state it's in, are we giving money away? When you're in a hole, stop digging.

ETA: that article dates back to 2005 - is there anything more recent?

Edited by Funk on Thursday 24th September 10:29

[selwonk]

Yep - that is an old one! There must be some public record somewhere...

[AndrewW-G]

Simple, we have a defeatist government who have realised that they have fked this country to such an extent that we can no longer produce anything of value and will quickly whooosh down the global ranking into a 3rd world country, they have also noticed that the Indians seem to be going up the league tables.
Labour thinking is that it therefore makes more sense to invest in and enhance the prospects of Indians the Britain’s and therefore benefit from equal or preferential trading relationships, I don’t know what the Indians think of this "aid" but are no doubt thankful that there tax's won’t go up to pay for it.

[AndrewW-G]

selwonk said:

Having had a dig around, it appears that we don't gift that much aid to India any more:

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/105...

£825,000,000.00 in addtional aid announced in 2008 http://www.tribuneindia.com/2008/20080121/main1.ht... given the amount of debt winky has signed us all upto £825,000,000.00 may not be much in the grand scheme of things, but it all adds up

ETA and thats ontop of the £200,000,000.00 the article in the indian times stated was given in 2005 (article also stated aid would go up by £100,000,000.00 per year until 2015, so in 2009 thats £600,000,000.00 rising to £1,200,000,000.00 in 2015!)

Edited by AndrewW-G on Thursday 24th September 10:35

[Eric Mc]

Who do you mean by "we"?

[esselte]

Eric Mc said:

Who do you mean by "we"?

UK?

[Eric Mc]

esselte said:

Eric Mc said:

Who do you mean by "we"?

UK?

Not clear, is it.

If indeed, the OP means the UK, does he mean official aid given by the UK government (i.e. the UK taxpayer) or all the various aid projects funded by private businesses, individuals and charities?

[esselte]

Eric Mc said:

esselte said:

Eric Mc said:

Who do you mean by "we"?

UK?

Not clear, is it.

If indeed, the OP means the UK, does he mean official aid given by the UK government (i.e. the UK taxpayer) or all the various aid projects funded by private businesses, individuals and charities?

Looks like the British taxpayer maybe

[Ewan S]

Also that tt cameron wants the aid to developing countries to continue. Git!

The indians will spend it on rockets, the africans on new military hardware etc, don't give it to them!

[superlightr]

Funk said:

It feels like giving money to a friend who says they desperately need it, and then seeing that the following week they've bought a plasma TV with the cash and that they actually don't need it at all.

Why, when our country's in the state it's in, are we giving money away? When you're in a hole, stop digging.

ETA: that article dates back to 2005 - is there anything more recent?

Edited by Funk on Thursday 24th September 10:29

sounds about right.

[Eric Mc]

esselte said:

Eric Mc said:

esselte said:

Eric Mc said:

Who do you mean by "we"?

UK?

Not clear, is it.

If indeed, the OP means the UK, does he mean official aid given by the UK government (i.e. the UK taxpayer) or all the various aid projects funded by private businesses, individuals and charities?

Looks like the British taxpayer maybe

Not quite Billions though, is it (although a tidy sum - I admit).

[esselte]

Eric Mc said:

esselte said:

Eric Mc said:

esselte said:

Eric Mc said:

Who do you mean by "we"?

UK?

Not clear, is it.

If indeed, the OP means the UK, does he mean official aid given by the UK government (i.e. the UK taxpayer) or all the various aid projects funded by private businesses, individuals and charities?

Looks like the British taxpayer maybe

Not quite Billions though, is it (although a tidy sum - I admit).

I suppose the same question arises,should we be giving aid to a country that can afford it's own nukes and space programme?

[MartG]

esselte said:

I suppose the same question arises,should we be giving aid to a country that can afford it's own nukes and space programme?

Especially when we can't afford a similar size space programme of our own

[Eric Mc]

MartG said:

esselte said:

I suppose the same question arises,should we be giving aid to a country that can afford it's own nukes and space programme?

Especially when we can't afford a similar size space programme of our own

We COULD afford to have a space programme of our own. It's just that in a democracy of our kind, it is hard for politicians to justify such expenditure to the (often technically or disinterested ignorant) populace.

India is, technically speaking, a democracy, but Indian politicians feel that it is important to pursue high tech areas and will devote an element of their expenditure to it.

I wish our government had the same atitude.

[esselte]

Eric Mc said:

MartG said:

esselte said:

I suppose the same question arises,should we be giving aid to a country that can afford it's own nukes and space programme?

Especially when we can't afford a similar size space programme of our own

We COULD afford to have a space programme of our own. It's just that in a democracy of our kind, it is hard for politicians to justify such expenditure to the (often technically or disinterested ignorant) populace.

India is, technically speaking, a democracy, but Indian politicians feel that it is important to pursue high tech areas and will devote an element of their expenditure to it.

I wish our government had the same atitude.

Maybe they would if we got foreign aid from somewhere to pay for it..

[5unny]

We give them money to soften them up, keep them happy and hopefully sell them some of our arms and fighter jets in the near future.

Trade between the two countries is in the tens of billions and growing rapidly each year - giving them a fraction of this back in aid is quite a good idea if it means they will throw more business our way.

You didnt think we just give them 'aid' out of the goodness of our hearts did you?

[zac510]

Eric Mc said:

We COULD afford to have a space programme of our own. It's just that in a democracy of our kind, it is hard for politicians to justify such expenditure to the (often technically or disinterested ignorant) populace.

India is, technically speaking, a democracy, but Indian politicians feel that it is important to pursue high tech areas and will devote an element of their expenditure to it.

I wish our government had the same atitude.

I guess to an extent that's the attitude that UK had 50-60 years ago.
Maybe you could say UK and some other European nations that spent money on those things that long ago have also 'grown' out of it a bit.