ABSTRACT
With the largest number of poor people in the world, India has for years been among the top recipients of Official Development Assistance (ODA). In 1997, India received US$1.6 billion in ODA, – only China and Egypt received more. 2 Yet, with aid constituting a minuscule portion of India’s Gross National Product (0.6% of GNP), ODA has never quite been a subject of serious public policy debate within the country. Recent cutbacks in overall levels of development assistance to India have, however, created some ripples. Aid to India has been falling every year since 1994, when it reached US$2.3 billion.
