India boosts development aid to other countries

NEW DELHI: The ministry of external affairs is smarting under a Rs 500-crore cut in its budgetary allocation, but the government has actually hiked the assistance budget to several countries.

The Forum for Indian Development Cooperation ( FIDC), functioning within MEA’s economic thinktank RIS, parsed through the budget to find that the 2016-17 budget has seen the sharpest hike in development assistance for Myanmar, the budgetary allocation jumping from Rs 165 crore in 2013-14 to Rs 400 crore in 2016-17.

In the region, Bhutan continues to get the maximum amount in Indian assistance, taking about 70% of total Indian development assistance this year, getting Rs 5,490 crore, followed by Afghanistan at Rs 520 crore.