Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether his Department has reassessed its position on providing aid to India in the context of Indian government spending on space exploration.

India's space exploration programme, including its recent moon landing, makes a valuable contribution to the international scientific community.

The British Government stopped providing traditional development aid to India in 2015.

Most UK funding to India is now in the form of business investments which help India reduce carbon emissions and address climate change. These investments have the dual aims of supporting development and backing private enterprises with the potential to be commercially viable so that the British Government can then reinvest in India or elsewhere.