UK aid to India

This country portfolio review examines the UK’s official development assistance to India since 2016.

Score: Amber/Red
  1. Status: Completed
  2. Published: 14 March 2023
  3. Type: Country portfolio review
  4. Subject: Country focus, Transitioning development partnerships
  5. Assessment: Amber/Red
  6. Location: India
  7. Lead commissioner: Tamsyn Barton
  8. SDGs covered:No poverty, Climate action, Industry, innovation and infrastructure

Read the approach paper

Our approach

The review assesses the relevance of UK aid to India’s needs, the extent to which different funding streams have been coherent and the effectiveness of UK aid to India in achieving the UK’s strategic objectives over the review period.

The review covers all UK aid expenditure in India, including aid managed by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), the former DFID and other government bodies including the former Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, the cross-government Prosperity Fund and UK aid channelled through multilateral organisations.

It also covers UK development capital investment in private sector businesses in India, which is provided through two channels: British International Investment (formerly CDC), the UK’s development finance institution, and FCDO’s own development capital portfolio.

Review questions

We sought to answer the following review questions:

  1. How relevant is the UK’s evolving model for development cooperation with India?
  2. How internally and externally coherent has the UK’s aid and associated diplomatic activity in India been?
  3. How effective has the UK aid portfolio been in achieving its strategic objectives in India?

Timeline

Approach

Published 2 August 2022

Evidence gathering

Complete

Review publication

Published 14 March 2023

Government response

Published 25 April 2023

Further scrutiny

Follow-up published 18 April 2024