USAID funding in India: USAID has funded several projects in India

The association between India and USAID began in 1951 when the then President Harry Truman signed the India Emergency Food Aid Act. 
| Photo Credit: Reuters

On February 16, the U.S. Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by billionaire Elon Musk, listed items on which the “U.S. taxpayer dollars were going to be spent” and the list included “$21M for voter turnout in India.” DOGE noted that all of the items have been cancelled.

U.S. President Donald Trump has also questioned the Biden administration’s decision to allocate $21 million to India for “voter turnout”, guessing that they were trying to “get somebody else elected”. This has led to cries of “foreign interference“ in Indian elections, with the BJP suspecting Congress role in it. The Congress has rubbished the charges as ‘nonsensical‘ and demanded a white paper on the USAID projects.

USAID association with India

The association between India and USAID began in 1951 when the then President Harry Truman signed the India Emergency Food Aid Act. Over the decades, USAID’s role has evolved from food aid to infrastructure development, capacity building, economic reforms, and more.

In the early years, the agency weighed in strongly in the education sector, immunisation, and health care. While health remains the main sector where USAID has been involved in India (including HIV/AIDS, TB, maternal and child health, and immunisation programmes) with a funding of $79.3 million in 2024, it also has interests in the economy, energy, water supply and sanitation, and environmental health, as per the foundation’s website.

USAID’s now archived website shows, from 1992 to 2002, approximately 65% of the annual U.S. foreign assistance funding for India was dedicated to food aid. The sixty-year-old India food aid program ended in 2011, and the 2012 budget request has no food aid.

USAID role in Swachh Bharat Mission

The archived website shows that they have been contributing to state-run projects in India such as Swachh Bharat Mission, a flagship scheme under Narendra Modi government’s first term for a cleaner India.

USAID signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Ministry of Urban Development (MOUD) on January 13, 2015, to contribute to India’s vision of extending clean water and sanitation services to all through the Government of India’s Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) and other urban development initiatives.

USAID worked with collaboration with non-profit organisations such as Water Sanitation and Hygiene Institute (WASH), KPMG India to provide institutional capacity of Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA).

Uttar Pradesh Jal Nigam (Urban) in collaboration with USAID and KPMG India has organised AMRUT 2.0 Water Conclave in Lucknow on 13-14 February, 2024. According to LinkedIn profile of Support for Urban Water and Sanitation in India (SUWASI), a public assistance programme, the two-day Conclave was funded under USAID- “Support for Urban Water and Sanitation in India (SUWASI)” project.

USAID and bilateral ties

In a bilateral brief published in August 2020 by Embassy of India in Kabul, they mentioned that the third edition of the India-Afghanistan Trade & Investment Show was held on 24-26 September 2019 at Delhi in cooperation with U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). USAID also claimed that they sponsored the second annual India-Afghanistan trade and investment show.

USAID funding in clean energy

The Union Ministry of New and Renewable energy, has partnered with USAID in Advance Clean Energy – Deployment Technical Assistance (PACE-D TA) Program. Arcfinance, an implementing agency that worked under this programme, said this initiative was part of the bilateral agreements signed between the U.S and India, one on energy efficiency technology commercialization and innovation with the Ministry of Power, and the other on renewable energy technology commercialization and innovation with the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy.

USAID collaboration with Environmental Ministry

USAID also worked in partnership with India’s Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MOEF&CC) and state forest departments. USAID collaborated with India’s Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MOEF&CC) and state forest departments in piloting technologies, tools and methods of forest management in the four states of Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, and Sikkim to improve forests ecosystem, carbon stocks, biodiversity and livelihoods.

It has said in its website that some of this project also comes under the purview U.S.-India bilateral agreement for Sustainable Forests and Climate Adaptation Program,

In India, the quantum of funding has reduced over the years, with the government of India objecting to certain aspects of the conditions for the agreement for grants. In the last decade, India is said to have received around $1.5 billion from USAID (about 0.2 % to 0.4 % of USAID’s total global funding (as per the foreign assistance website).

USAID provides financial aid across various sectors in over 100 countries worldwide. Broadly, it works in the sectors of economic development, health, education, food security, humanitarian assistance, climate change, and democracy and governance.