timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/uk/uk-se…
Aid given bilaterally to poorer nations in 2023 fell by nearly 10% from £4.6 billion in 2022 to £4.1 billion in 2023. The largest cuts were made to Asia which saw its UK bilateral aid fall by 33%.

Spending on bilateral aid for humanitarian assistance…

toi.in/Ltq7iY/a24gk via The Times Of India
The UK is sending less aid overseas than ever as the same budget (official development assistance) is used to fund hosting refugees in Britain and pay for their hotel costs.More money is now spent on hosting refugees and asylum-seekers in…

Red on Red row erupts.

Political economist and husband of Union FM Nirmala Sitharaman, Parakala Prabhakar said if the BJP wins the upcoming Lok Sabha polls and PM Narendra Modi is re-elected again in 2024, then there will never be elections in the country again.
trib.al/ybOvwh2

We aren’t begging Europe for money & arms or use us as proxies to fight China. We are confronting it militarily & also talking & trading. While China is claiming our territory & directly threatening us, am not aware Russia claims French land &has massed forces on French border.

The latest western op-ed on the Indian elections.

#REPORT : Jagmeet Singh claimed more than $533,000 in expenses as an MP in the last nine months of 2023, more than any other parliamentarian. Pierre Poilievre spent just $61,000, less than any other MP.

K. C. Singh As usual living in your own la la land! 75,000 is salary of a journo in some outfits after slogging for years! And no, it’s not entry level salary for corporates!
Stop being with ‘Jhoonth’ abb toh !

There is a much bigger india beyond the office that you see. Only 3-4% of the workforce work out of offices.
And no, 10L is not normal salary - 2/3 of TCS employees earn <9L/yr.

Yep! If you earn >₹25,000 per month, you’ll be among top 10% earners. Just think about that. There’s a LONG way for us to go. Focusing on this reality and changing it will help. Coping and breeding complacency by making ridiculous comparisons to developed economies would not.

Interesting debate going on in this thread.

Police investigate Labour deputy leader Angela Rayner in council house row bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politi…

A couple of years ago, I got eye surgery done for my mother. She was close to 80 then.
We were back home in five hours.

I am wondering what kind of eye surgery AAP's 35 year old Raghav Chadha would have undergone, which is keeping him 'in observation' in London for five weeks!

There seems to a real issuse with how Congress choose their MPs. I know of several very talented people who could not get Congress tickets.....(We have a similar problem in the UK too - I know talented people here unable to get selected for their respective parties.) I also find…

Under the Tories, thousands of bus services have been cut since 2010.

Labour’s plan could create and save up to 1,300 bus routes and allow 250 million more passenger journeys per year.

telegraph.co.uk/politics/2024/…
Rishi Sunak is facing a revolt next week over his proposal to ban smoking after it was criticised by two former prime ministers and his ex-home secretary.

MPs will debate the legislation for the first time on Tuesday, just over a fortnight before local…

Immensely proud to be appointed the next British High Commisssioner to India. Huge thanks to Alex Ellis for leaving such a great legacy. So looking forward to working with the amazing UK in India🇬🇧🇮🇳 team. I can’t wait to get started!