Britain will continue to provide 280 million pounds a year in aid to India over the next four years. British Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell said that India’s poorest regions need help to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. He told BBC that India portrays a – Development Paradox with 450 million people living on less than 50 pence a day while millionaires enjoy great wealth. But Britain has to abide by its Millennium Development Goals commitment. For this, the poorest regions of India will still need help.

His comments come after an enquiry ordered by him decided to stop giving British aid to 16 countries including China, Russia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Moldova and Serbia.

Britain said that it is cutting aid to 16 countries and four United Nations agencies in an effort to focus its overseas aid budget to the world’s most fragile countries. Among the countries that will stop receiving direct aid from Britain by 2016 are Russia, China, Vietnam, Serbia and Iraq. Five countries are slated to receive more aid – Ethiopia, Bangladesh, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Pakistan. Britain will also stop funding the U.N.’s Industrial Development Organization, Habitat, International Labor Organization and International Strategy for Disaster Reduction, which it describes as poor performers. But it will give more assistance to UNICEF, the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization, and some other organizations that it says have a good track record.

International Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell said the government has decided to focus British aid money on countries where it will be most effective in cutting poverty.