Max Lawson, the head of policy at aid and development

charity Oxfam, said there was, "no development case to be made for stopping aid to India". "Three hundred thousand women a year die in childbirth. It's completely inexcusable that the rich in India allow that to happen � but that's just as true in Nigeria or in Angola, and no one says we shouldn't help poor people in those places," he added. Ivan Lewis, Labour's shadow development minister, told the Guardian that politics, not economics, had guided the announcement. "The timing of this decision was not about consistent UK development policy, or our relationship with India, it was a beleaguered secretary of state trying to get a few brownie points from the 'no-aid' brigade," he said. The IPPR calls for the UK to draw up an "exit strategy", setting development targets that must be achieved before assistance is stopped. "This report fails to recognise that the decision to change the UK's development relationship with India was an agreement between the UK and the Indian government. The Indian government has made clear that what it values most about the relationship is Technical Assistance to make its own welfare spending more effective," a DfID spokesperson said.