Project Leader: Rajat Kathuria
Research Team: Sanjay Pulipaka and Tanu M. Goyal
Commencement: September 2017
Completion: July 2018
Funded by: Oxfam India
Historically, the volume of India’s overseas development assistance has been significantly smaller in comparison to foreign aid from traditional donor countries. However, there has been an increase in this regard in recent years and development assistance is gradually emerging as an important pillar of the country’s foreign policy. India’s neighbourhood and specifically countries such as Nepal have been significant beneficiaries of India’s development assistance. India’s financial and development assistance to Nepal dates back to the 1950s with Nepal being one of the earliest recipients of India’s assistance. Over the decades, India has built a strong aid mechanism, providing grant assistance to Nepal in meeting its development goals, be it large infrastructural projects or small-scale community-based projects at the grass-root level in the areas of infrastructure, health, water resources, education, and rural and community development. Given this background, this project a) assesses India’s development assistance/engagement in the education sector in Nepal and suggests measures to improve India’s assistance programme and outcomes in the sector, and b) evaluates the infrastructure connectivity projects between India and Nepal based on the impact they had on regional and social inequities. A section is also devoted to examining the likely impact of the proposed connectivity projects (road and rail).