Under pressure to deliver on the economic front, British Prime Minister David Cameron is scaling down all overseas aid. Andrew Mitchell, the International Development Secretary, signalled that the 250 million pounds of public money spent annually in nuclear-armed India could be scaled back. Besides, the 40 million pounds spent in Vietnam by the Department for International Development, now regarded as an Asian "tiger" economy, will be axed.

Cutting foreign aid to countries like India was the most important suggestion by voters to Chancellor George Osborne, who launched a website called Treasury’s Spending Challenge to ask people for ideas on where the axe should fall. Jo Johnson, a Conservative MP wrote in The Financial Times: “India can now fund its own development needs, considerable though they are in a country with 450 million poor. It has a defence budget of $31.5 billion, plans for a prestige- boosting moon-shot and a substantial foreign aid programme of its own”.

Last month, Britain, shocked by reports of huge misappropriation of funds in India in the use of millions of pounds granted as aid for the government program ‘Sarva-Shiksha Abhiyan’ (education for all), and promised zero tolerance to corruption and launched an immediate inquiry. “These are shocking allegations. I have launched an immediate inquiry to ensure British aid money has not been misused,” he had said. “We have made a pledge to British taxpayers; they must know that for every pound of their money, we will get 100 pence of value,” reports The Sunday Times.