Chandrayaan and Kohinoor.

"In a surprising turn of events, the recent success of India's Chandrayaan-3 mission to the Moon's south pole has sparked a heated debate over foreign aid between the UK and India." ET. It seems that Britain has provided 2.3 billion pounds in foreign aid to India between 2016 and 2021 and will provide a further 57 million pounds in the coming year. Journalist Sophie Corcoran and news presenter Patrick Christys hinted that India should repay the money. That provoked a ferocious reaction from the army of nitwits who argued that Britain should return the Kohinoor diamond and the estimated $45 trillion they looted from India during colonial conquest. That totally misses the point. The point is: Why are we taking financial aid from a country poorer than us? "Seventy-five years after it attained freedom at midnight, India now has an economy larger than that of its erstwhile colonial master. India has now overtaken the UK to emerge as the fifth-largest economy in the world and is set to become the third largest by 2029, reports said." TOI. This is just the beginning. India's economy is set to zoom straight up like Chandrayaan-3 which has successfully landed its rover on the moon (BBC) and has set off this furore. "Reserve Bank of India (RBI) deputy governor Michael Patra has said India will match Germany's GDP (just more than $4 trillion as of 2021) and become the fourth largest economy by 2025-26 and by 2027, India will overtake Japan (approximately $5 trillion GDP) to become the third-largest economy." TN. Perhaps, every Indian will then receive the Rs 15 lakhs (Rs 1.5 million) promised by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014. NDTV. By that time the value of Rs 1.5 million will have become half because of rocketing inflation, but, still, something is better than nothing. Unless it's all jumla, of course. "Nearly 36% Indians in the 15-34 age group believe unemployment is the biggest problem in the country, a recent survey by Lokniti-CSDS has found." The Wire. "When compared to a similar survey conducted in 2016, the proportion of Indians who identify unemployment as the biggest problem increased by 18 percentage points while those who believe price rise is the primary concern increased by 7 percentage points, the report said." According to the "income data from Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) 2019-20 showed that a monthly salary of Rs 25,000 (roughly $300) is already amongst the top 10 percent of total incomes earned." TOI. According to a report by rating agency Crisil in August, food forms 53% of the consumption basket of low-income rural and 51% of low-income urban population. Food constitutes 38% of consumption in the upper 20% income bracket in rural and 25% in urban India, wrote Vivek Kaul. That is why we still accept aid from Britain. Rest is all jumla.