Britain launches new aid plan for India

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Britain launches new aid plan for India

New Delhi, Mar 9 (IANS) :

Britain Tuesday launched a major long-term initiative to partner India in

achieving its poverty reduction targets and in improving healthcare and

education programmes across the country.

Britain's Department For International Development (DFID) plans to spend 200

million pounds during the first year of the new plan that will be implemented

during 2004-08.

DFID will continue with a programme launched in 2000 to assist the " four focus

states " of Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa and West Bengal while

strengthening its national programme to aid the Indian government in achieving

the targets set under the 10th five-year plan, said Charlotte Seymour-,

head of DFID India.

In the healthcare sector, the initiative will bolster India's efforts to tackle

HIV/AIDS, with DFID providing 123 million pounds to the National AIDS Control

Organisation over a period of five years.

India currently has some 4.5 million people living with HIV/AIDS and experts

believe this figure could increase to 25 million by 2010 at current rates of

infection.

" The focus areas in the new plan will be poverty reduction, sustainable and

equitable economic growth and improving access of poor people to better quality

services, " Seymour- told a programme held here to mark the launch of the

DFID initiative.

" Combating poverty in India is central to the global fight against poverty. Some

350 million people in India are living on less than a dollar a day, " she noted.

The British high commissioner in India, Arthur, and N.K. Singh, member

of India's Planning Commission, were among those who attended the programme.

DFID's Permanent Secretary Suman Chakrabarti joined the programme through a

video link from London.

Seymour- said the new strategy, titled " Partnership for Development " , was

prepared after consultations with the Indian government and other organisations.

The new plan will fund significant shares of the Indian government's programmes

in key areas like healthcare, including reproductive and child health, polio

prevention and HIV/AIDS, and primary education.

N.K. Singh said the synergy between DFID and the Indian government would help

New Delhi in pushing forward economic reforms and facing the challenges of a

rapidly integrating world.

India, he noted, wanted to shift the implementation of economic reforms from the

central government to the state governments, getting them to play a greater role

in restructuring sectors like power, roads, labour and agriculture.

Seymour- said DFID also worked closely with the Indian government to

monitor the use of funds provided by Britain. The DFID, she said, had " stringent

audit requirements " to ensure that funds were not diverted.

The India programme is DFID's largest bilateral initiative.

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