Minister defends aid to India amid row on trade Andrew Mitchell has defended the government's policy of giving aid to India amid mounting hostility among Conservative MPs. The Tory development secretary said he would not back down to demands to cut the UK's aid to India after the country gave frontrunner status to Dassault, of France, to supply it with 126 fighter jets, rather than the bid by Eurofighter, which the UK backed. The decision angered Tory MPs. Patrick Mercer said last week: "Overseas aid is not just something given willy-nilly. The expectation is it will generate better conditions for the ­country to which it is going and help expand trade. But Mr Mitchell insisted aid was aimed at helping the poor, not generating business. India itself has got 60m children into school in recent years with their own money but more than 30 per cent of the world's poorest people live there. There are states the size of Britain where half of all children suffer from malnutrition. He added: "We are changing our approach to India. We will target aid at three of India's poorest states, rather than central government. We will invest more in the private sector, with our aid programme having some of the characteristics of a sovereign wealth fund. The debate was reignited after the Sunday Telegraph reported on remarks in 2010 from the Indian finance minister, describing Britain's aid as "peanuts."