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Budget 2024: Neighbourhood first in External Affairs’ allocation for aid to countries

The Chabahar port project in Iran continues to receive a steady allocation of Rs 100 crore, unchanged for the past three years

A month ago, when the NDA government began its third term, India spelt out clearly that it would focus on its neighbourhood. The presence of leaders from the neighbourhood and the Indian Ocean region, including Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and Sri Lanka President Ranil Wickremesinghe, at the inauguration of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s third term, reaffirmed that policy.

In keeping with that, a major chunk of the Ministry of External Affairs’ outlay, Rs 4,883 crore, has been earmarked for “aid to countries”, of which countries from the neighbourhood – Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Maldives, Afghanistan and Myanmar – get the lion’s share.

Bhutan has emerged as the top recipient of Indian government aid to foreign countries, according to the Union Budget documents released after Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Union Budget 2024-25 Tuesday. It gets the highest aid at an estimated Rs 2,068.56 crore, which is slightly less than Rs 2,400 crore last year.