UK looks to wind down aid to India Justine Greening will this week outline plans to phase out Britain's controversial aid payments to India, which are likely to come to an end after 2015. On a visit to Delhi, the international development secretary will tell Indian ministers that the UK intends to wind down aid to the country and work on fostering trade links instead. According to reports in two British newspapers, Ms Greening will announce she intends to cut the current £280m-a-year programme in half. Government advisers would not comment on the reports, but Ms Greening told the Conservative party conference earlier this year: "We should recognise that as countries get richer, we need to be responsible about how we transition in our relationship with them from aid to trade. Those are the discussions that I am having with the Indian government at the moment. The UK's aid programme has angered many Tory MPs, who say Britain should not be giving development grants to a country with its own space programme. They were particularly vexed by the decision by the Indian government to buy a new fleet of French Rafale jets, instead of the Typhoons made in part by Britain. They said the decision showed Britain's aid budget was not winning the kind of influence and trade links they hoped for.