India on Monday set aside over Rs 7,100 crore in its budget for 2021-22 as development assistance for countries in its neighbourhood as well as in Africa and Latin America, with Bhutan getting the maximum allocation of Rs 3,004 crore while Rs 100 crore will be given to Chabahar port project in Iran.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman allocated Rs 18,154 crore to the Ministry of External Affairs in the union budget, out of which Rs 7,148 crore has been earmarked as aid to countries.
As per the revised estimates, India's development assistance in 2020-21 was Rs 5,369 crore.
According to the budget documents, Bhutan will get a total of Rs 3,004 crore compared to the revised estimate of Rs 2,261 crore in 2020-21.
The development assistance to Nepal has been increased to Rs 992 crore from last year's Rs 880 crore while the amount for Afghanistan has been pegged at Rs 350 crore and Myanmar at Rs 400 crore.
Both Bangladesh and Sri Lanka will get Rs 200 crore each, while an amount of Rs 250 crore has been set aside for the Maldives.
An amount of Rs 300 crore has been allocated for African countries, Rs 100 crore for Eurasian countries and an outlay of Rs 40 crore was marked for Latin American nations.
Separately, Rs 130 crore has been allocated for assistance to other developing countries.
In the budget, Sitharaman also made an allocation of Rs 100 crore for the development of the Chabahar port. The amount is the same as was allocated in 2020-21.
Located in the Sistan-Balochistan province on the energy-rich Iran's southern coast, the Chabahar port is being developed by India, Iran and Afghanistan to boost trade ties.
India on Sunday formally handed over two 140-tonnemobile harbour cranes to the authorities of the Chabahar port in Iran and both sides reviewed their overall cooperation in developing the transit hub.
According to the budget documents, additionally, an amount of Rs 476 crore has been set aside for 'support to international training/programmes'.
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Dear Reader,
Business Standard has always strived hard to provide up-to-date information and commentary on developments that are of interest to you and have wider political and economic implications for the country and the world. Your encouragement and constant feedback on how to improve our offering have only made our resolve and commitment to these ideals stronger. Even during these difficult times arising out of Covid-19, we continue to remain committed to keeping you informed and updated with credible news, authoritative views and incisive commentary on topical issues of relevance.
We, however, have a request.
As we battle the economic impact of the pandemic, we need your support even more, so that we can continue to offer you more quality content. Our subscription model has seen an encouraging response from many of you, who have subscribed to our online content. More subscription to our online content can only help us achieve the goals of offering you even better and more relevant content. We believe in free, fair and credible journalism. Your support through more subscriptions can help us practise the journalism to which we are committed.
Support quality journalism and subscribe to Business Standard.
Digital Editor
RECOMMENDED FOR YOU