UK should continue to provide aid to India, parliamentary report says

Despite enormous economic gains over the past 25 years, Britain should continue to provide aid to India until 2015 to ensure the country meets the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), according to a cross-party report published by the House of Commons international development committee on Tuesday, the Guardian reports.

With an average per capita income one-twentieth of that in the U.K. and more than 400 million people living in poverty, the report determined that British aid "makes a distinct, value-added contribution to poverty reduction which would not otherwise happen" and called for future aid to focus on improving sanitation, fighting malnutrition and challenging social exclusion, according to the newspaper (Ford, 6/14).