United States Agency of International Development (USAID) in South Asia

Select Language Afrikaans Albanian Arabic Armenian Azerbaijani Basque Belarusian Bulgarian Bengali Catalan Chinese (Simplified) Chinese (Traditional) Croatian Czech Danish Dutch English Estonian Filipino Finnish French Galician Georgian German Greek Gujarati Haitian Creole Hebrew Hindi Hungarian Icelandic Indonesian Irish Italian Japanese Javanese Kannada Khmer Korean Latvian Lithuanian Macedonian Malay Maltese Marathi Nepali Norwegian Persian Polish Portuguese Punjabi Romanian Russian Serbian Slovak Slovenian Spanish Swahili Swedish Tamil Telugu Thai Turkish Ukrainian Urdu Vietnamese Welsh Yiddish

This is a collection of articles archived for the excellence of their content. Additional information may please be sent as messages to the Facebook community, Indpaedia.com. All information used will be gratefully acknowledged in your name.

History

1951-2024

Arjun Sengupta, February 4, 2025: The Indian Express

What role does USAID play in India?

The US has provided development and humanitarian assistance to India since 1951, when President Harry Truman signed the India Emergency Food Assistance Act, according to an archived page on the USAID website.

“USAID’s program has evolved progressively over the decades from emergency provision of food, to infrastructure development, capacity building of key Indian institutions, support for the opening of the Indian economy and more,” the website said.

Economic aid from the US has also helped establish eight agricultural universities, the first Indian Institute of Technology, and 14 regional engineering colleges, as well as strengthen India’s national programs on immunisation, family planning, maternal and child health, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and polio, according to the website.

However, its operations in India — as in the rest of the world — have historically come with strings and conditions attached.

For instance, USAID in 1965 gave India a $67 million loan to build a chemical fertiliser factory in Madras (now Chennai) on the condition that a private American company be in charge of distribution, rather than the Indian government, and no additional fertiliser plants be built in the region.

In 2004, the Indian government decided to reject any foreign aid that comes with conditions. This has, over time, led to a decline in the quantum of such assistance. According to ForeignAssistance.gov, US aid obligations to India in FY2024 stood at $141 million, down from more than $153 million in 2023, and significantly lower than the $208 million obligated in 2001 (the earliest year for which this data is available online).

This means that India should be able to tackle any disruptions in USAID in the near future. “Although USAID does fund many crucial initiatives in India, it comprises only a small slice of the pie in terms of the country’s total expenditure on social welfare programs,” a source in the development sector said, on the condition of anonymity.

Pakistan

Funding a group tied to a top terrorist chief

Shankhyaneel Sarkar, News18.com, Feb 5, 2025: msn.com

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) which is facing the ire of DOGE head Elon Musk provided $110,000 in 2019 to a terrorist organisation in Pakistan, which has targeted India and played a major role in the 26/11 Mumbai attacks.

Amjad Taha, author and researcher, in a post on social media pointed out that the USAID provided approximately $110,000 in funding to organizations in South Asia with alleged ties to jihadist groups.

One such organization was Helping Hand for Relief and Development (HHRD), a Michigan-based charity. HHRD was reported to have connections with Pakistan’s Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation (FIF), which the US designated as a terrorist organization due to its association with the 2008 Mumbai attacks.