UK may cut India aid in winter of discontent

London, Oct 18 (PTI) Amidst reports of major job
losses and spending cuts, millions of Britons are awaiting
with a mix of fear and anxiety Chancellor George Osborne
outlining of the most stringent financial reform plans in
European contemporary history.
The Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) to be outlined
in the House of Commons on Wednesday is expected to include a
substantial reduction in British aid to India, which is
increasingly seen as an investor and economic powerhouse that
can meet its challenges without dependence on international
aid.
Britain's university sector is already in turmoil with
leaked emails suggesting that it faces 4.2 billion pounds in
cuts, which will lead to closure of some universities, many
subject departments and job losses of thousands of lecturers
in subjects such as Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences.
The CSR will outline which areas of Whitehall's budget
will be hit the hardest, as the government attempts to reduce
the 155 billion pounds deficit accumulated allegedly due to
wrong economic policies of the previous Labour governments.
The aim is to save 83 billion in the next four years
of the current parliament.
The government has already announced that over 150
quasi-government bodies will soon be disbanded or
restructured, leading to hundreds of thousands of job losses.
Almost every government department faces major cuts,
including the Department for International Development, which
will impact on aid Britain gives to countries such as India.
A substantial cut in aid to India is considered
inevitable in the present economic climate.
Apart from reducing aid to India, the impact of the
CSR is expected to adversely affect many Indian-origin
lecturers and professionals employed in the government and
related sectors.
This is likely to include cutbacks in projects that
are outsourced to India by government departments.
The scale of the cuts envisaged by the David Cameron
government to balance the national balance sheet has awed
many, but the measures continue to receive public support on
the ground that the short-term measures were necessary to
secure a long-term economic future.
Today, leaders of 35 of the UK's biggest companies
expressed their support for the plans.
The chairmen of Marks and Spencer, BT and
GlaxoSmithKline are among those to have signed a letter to the
Daily Telegraph in which they write that it would be a
"mistake" for Osborne to water down his programme for reducing
the budget deficit.