United States Agency of International Development (USAID) in South Asia
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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to India since 1951, when President Harry Truman signed the India Emergency Food Assistance Act, according to an archived page on the USAID website.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.
Bangladesh
Regime change?
Feb 10, 2025: The Times of India
How USAID was used for regime change in Bangladesh: Former US State Dept official Mike Benz reveals
TOI World Desk
Did the US government actively work to destabilize Bangladesh using taxpayer-funded programs? Former US State Department official Mike Benz has made explosive claims that USAID and affiliated organizations orchestrated efforts to undermine the Bangladeshi government in a bid to secure American strategic interests.
Regime change for a military base?
Speaking about US foreign policy planning, Benz laid out a hypothetical—but eerily specific—scenario: "Let’s say it is vital to US national interest to build a military base in Bangladesh to counter China, but the Bangladeshi Prime Minister refuses. Our foreign policy planners then decide that regime change is necessary."Benz explained that once such a decision is made, "all options to destabilize the country" come into play. These range from backing opposition forces to orchestrating a color revolution, a reference to past US-backed uprisings where leaders have been ousted, sometimes fleeing in helicopters.
Leaked documents: Destabilization strategy in action
Benz also explained, according to leaked documents published by The Grayzone, US agencies, including the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), worked to "destabilize Bangladesh’s politics"—a direct quote from the documents. The International Republican Institute (IRI), one of NED’s political branches, submitted a plan to the State Department in 2019-20, after previously failing to install the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) in power.The strategy involved recruiting-
170 pro-democracy activists
304 key informants
Ethnic and cultural fault lines that could be exploited
Minority groups, LGBT communities, and student protestors
Weaponizing Rap music to spark protests?
In one of the more striking revelations, Benz claimed that US taxpayer money was used to fund Bangladeshi rap groups to produce protest songs. The goal? Encourage street demonstrations disguised as "peaceful protests"—which often spiral into riots."One song was designed to sow resentment against the sitting government, another was meant to make people distrust their leaders," Benz explained. These songs were then strategically promoted among students who had already been protesting over local political issues, increasing tensions on the ground.
Soft power or covert destabilization?
The IRI’s baseline assessment identified the most effective ways to stir unrest. Benz noted that these methods often rely on fringe elements within society. “This is how we end up funding terrorists, paramilitaries, criminals, and even prostitutes in the name of soft power projection,” he said.
Bigger picture: US influence operations abroad
While Benz did not weigh in on the morality of these actions, his claims paint a troubling picture of US foreign policy. If true, they expose how democracy promotion efforts may, in reality, serve as tools for regime change, shaping governments to align with US strategic goals.
India
Policies, elections
Feb 18, 2025: The Times of India
PM Modi's adviser on how USAID influenced key policies besides elections
TOI News Desk
NEW DELHI: Sanjeev Sanyal, PM Modi's economic adviser, put light on the surreptitious role the United States agency for international development (USAID) had in shaping India's medical and social policies, besides meddling with the Indian elections.
Substantiating his claims on X on Monday, Sanyal said USAID "effectively ran India's National Family Health Survey (NFHS) from the 1990s" till it was stopped in 2022 by PM Modi's dispensation. He said the USAID not only allowed foreign agencies to "harvest" India's medical record but also paved the way for designing surveys and analyses to support certain social narratives.
"Those concerned about USAID's interference in Indian elections should be equally concerned about USAID's tentacles in India's medical system and social policies. USAID effectively ran India's National Family Health Survey (NFHS) from the 1990s till it was stopped two years ago. This is the most important medical dataset in India and drives a lot of health policy," Sanyal wrote on X.
He further wrote: "Not only were we allowing a foreign agency to harvest our medical data but, by allowing them to design surveys and direct analysis, we were letting them influence our national health responses. Equally worryingly, much of the NFHS questionnaire was deliberately skewed to support certain social narratives. The questionnaire for men, for instance, is only 29 pages but that for women is 94 pages."
Sanyal claimed the questionnaires were "slyly" designed to elicit a narrative of intra-family violence against Indian women.
"A lot of the additional questions are deliberately worded to elicit a narrative of intra-family violence against Indian women. Must say, very slyly done. Readers will recall that late Bibek Debroy and I strongly pushed back against this (including publicly in newspaper columns). Fortunately, GoI took up the matter and the latest NFHS is being done by health ministry on its own. Note that readers can verify what I am saying easily as it was all done in plain sigh," he added.
Acknowledging that it took the NDA government long eight years to discontinue the USAID influence in NFHS, Sanyal said "it is not so easy to upturn a well-established system that went back decades".
"Some people are asking why the USAID did the 2019-21 NFHS survey and was not removed earlier. Well, it is not so easy to upturn a well-established system that went back decades. It takes time to recognise a problem, and build capability to replace it. Nonetheless, GoI has been tightening FCRA over the last decade despite many howls of protest. One can only do more when the Overton Window has moved. The DOGE revelations about USAID has hopefully done that," he added.
Earlier, the BJP seized upon Elon Musk-headed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), constituted by US President Donald Trump, announcing that it had cancelled many programmes costing hundreds of millions of taxpayers' dollars, citing $486 million to the 'Consortium for Elections and Political Process Strengthening', which included $21 million for "voter turnout" in India.
What USAID used to give in India, to whom
Johnson T A, March 7, 2025: The Indian Express
USAID has been a major contributor to health- and population-linked projects in India over the last two decades. In recent years, it has also focussed on building systems in India as part of a partnership strategy drawn up in 2022 to counter China in the Indo-Pacific.
A program to explore the creation of a secure 5G Open Radio Access Network (O-RAN) for India as part of the United States’ Indo-Pacific strategy, initiatives for clean air and water and sanitation, and dozens of health projects will come to a halt in India following a decision by the Trump administration (January 20 Executive Order titled “Reevaluating and Realigning United States Foreign Aid”) to end foreign aid and all but disband the US Agency for International Development (USAID).
USAID has been a major contributor to health- and population-linked projects in India over the last two decades. In recent years, it has also focussed on building systems in India as part of a partnership strategy drawn up in 2022 to counter China in the Indo-Pacific.
In 2022, USAID was fourth among providers of Official Development Assistance to India with a contribution of $228 million after Japan ($2.97 billion), European Union institutions ($383.5 mn) and Germany ($235 mn), according to Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) data.
USAID funding for India
Data on foreignassistance.gov, a joint website of USAID and the US Department of State that details US non-defence foreign assistance through governments and NGOs, show USAID disbursed a total $2.8 billion in Official Development Assistance to India since 2001.
The largest aid packets came over 2022 and 2023 – $228 million and $175 million respectively. In 2024, $151 million had been disbursed to India until December 19, when the site was last updated.
A significant increase in USAID allocation to an economic support fund to India after the Covid-19 pandemic – $148 million in 2022 and $81 million in 2023 – was the main reason US aid to India reached all-time highs over the last three years. These years were the first since the 2001-08 period when total annual disbursals to India exceeded $100 million. (The earlier peak of $175 million was reached in 2006.)
While the bulk of the annual USAID funding in 2001 and 2002 went to Food Aid and Commodity Assistance, the subsequent years saw a focus on the Health and Population category through allocations for polio eradication, maternal health, HIV/ AIDS and tuberculosis control programs – and Covid-19 in the 2022-2024 period.
USAID funding to India over last 3 years
2024: $80 million of the $151 million disbursed to India by USAID in 2024 went to the Health and Population category – with $42.99 million for basic health programs, including $16 million for Covid-19.
The next highest allocation was to maternal and child health and family planning ($20.94 million), followed by environmental protection programs ($17.12 million).
2023: Of the $175 million disbursed by USAID to India in 2023, Health and Population got $120 million, with $83.22 million for basic health (including $54 million for Covid-19 control.
Maternal and child health got $16.28 million, HIV/ AIDS $12.13 million, and environmental protection $9.62 million.
2022: $180 million of the $228 million disbursed by USAID was for the Health and Population category, including $140.7 million for basic health ($120 million was for Covid-19 control).
$25.09 million was given for maternal and child health, $10.57 million for HIV/ AIDS, and $7.18 million for environment protection.
When funds tap shuts
In its effort to stop the US economy from haemorrhaging resources amid growing debt, the Trump administration has gone after USAID and its funding initiatives with a sledgehammer. The impact will be felt in underdeveloped and developing countries in Asia and Africa, including India – especially in those health and social sector areas in which Indian government funding is limited.
TUBERCULOSIS: Breaking the Barriers, a program to increase knowledge about TB in the poorest regions of Karnataka, Telangana, Bihar, and Assam will be a key USAID-funded project that will be hit. Over the 2022-23 period, USAID provided $7 million to the program, routed through the Karnataka Health Promotion Trust (KHPT).
“The program will be closing down. Had the funding continued, there would have been a lot of innovations – but that is going to stop,” a senior official of KHPT, the implementing agency in Karnataka, said.
HIV/AIDS: USAID and PEPFAR (President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief) have been the major contributors to the global fight against HIV/ AIDS.
“[The mission] is currently under threat because of the Trump administration disbanding and abandoning USAID. We are unclear what will happen but the disruption that has already taken place will manifest itself in lives lost and prevention of onward transmission of HIV infections,” the German population health researcher Dr Till Barnighausen told The Indian Express during a visit to Bengaluru recently.
“The major player here globally has been the US via PEPFAR and through global initiatives. With the US potentially moving out the programs will need to be very well managed in order not to cause major long term losses of life,” Dr Barnighausen said. The German Consul General in Bengaluru Achim Burkart said at a recent public lecture that the cutting of USAID funds “means losing lives”. In Zambia alone, 150,000 people are in desperate need of HIV medication, in the absence of which they will die, Burkart said.
“We the rich countries have a responsibility to support the countries that are not able to support themselves. With at least 50% of the world’s population having no access to safe, affordable, and timely healthcare services, delivering healthcare remains an urgent task,” he said.
On February 13, a US Federal Court stayed the January 20 executive order to halt all foreign aid. The Trump administration appealed to the US Supreme Court and argued that 5,800 foreign aid awards had been evaluated and 500 had been retained. In a 5-4 verdict on March 5, the court rejected the US government’s request to cancel the February 13 order of the US Federal Court.
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.
Winding up of USAID in 2025
Fallout in India
Himanshi Dhawan, February 8, 2025: The Times of India
A pall of uncertainty and gloom has descended on the social sector since the Trump administration’s order last week to immediately suspend all US Agency for International Development (USAID) operations and send staffers on administrative leave.
The decision is likely to have a multipronged impact in India. It has put the brakes on projects that USAID funds, affecting the communities that it serves, and is likely to result in job losses in the development sector.
USAID is an independent agency of the US govt that provides developmental assistance of about $50 billion across the globe. According to Learning4impact.org, USAID runs 41 projects across 582 districts in India with the support of 26 civil society partners. Development professionals, who spoke to TOI on condition of anonymity, described the disruption of USAID funds globally as “disastrous” for social work and humanitarian aid in conflict zones like Gaza, Congo and Ukraine.
Impact On India
Sector insiders say the abrupt halt of work has left projects in disarray. The head of a non-profit said some cuts were expected when Donald Trump won the US presidential elections. “When the 90-day pause on foreign aid was announced on Jan 24, we were expecting cutbacks in areas like DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) and reproductive health which is in line with the Republican agenda. But last week’s order left us all shocked. We have been asked to stop all work with immediate effect,” the person said.
Another senior development sector professional said, “There is a complete freeze on everything. At a conference recently, there was a discussion on how many heads were going to roll and people were fearing a carnage. There are some agencies that are 80-90% dependent on USAID funds; they’ll have to shut completely. We never imagined something like this would happen.” Those who have one or two projects on USAID funds now face the challenge of scrounging for new donors to fill the gap, failing which they’ll have to shut down the projects altogether and cut staff.
These projects range from providing low-cost drugs for HIV, supporting immunisation programmes for diseases like TB, working on maternal and child health and adolescent sexual reproductive health to surveillance for epidemic control and use of digital technologies for climate change. Staffers who are providing services to these projects include doctors, nurses, managers, trainers, social workers and community leaders across not just the larger cities but also small towns and districts.
Sector estimates suggest that 10,000-15,000 people in India are employed in projects directly funded by USAID that could see cutbacks in the coming months. Some have already been asked to go. The head of a multilateral agen- cy says, “We have been forced to let go of people working on projects that are unlikely to be revived.” To make matters worse, there are WhatsApp forwards doing the rounds on which projects will be retained and which might be canned. “It has added to the panic and uncertainty among people,” the agency head added. “Projects will be picked up based on ‘priority’ — so, maybe a maternal health project will get partially funded, but an environmental project perhaps won’t,” said a senior person in the sector.
A public health professional who has previously worked with multilateral agencies says that this will have a snowball effect. “By next year 90% of the workforce will either be shown the door or would have moved out,” he said.
Besides aborted projects and job losses, development professionals foresee disruption in exchange of technical support offered by these agencies. One of them said, “Even if other funders pick up some of these projects and they get a fresh lease of life, it’s unlikely they will be able to replicate the USAID’s mammoth work or that level of quality.”
The impact of the financial freeze goes beyond USAID projects. A lawyer working on HIV programmes expressed concern over the likely impact of the pause on federal aid for the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). “This pause could disrupt the supply and pricing of generic antiretrovirals from India, as PEPFAR and the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria are major purchasers of these medicines. Their joint efforts in pooled procurement have helped lower HIV drug prices, benefiting both global programmes and India’s own HIV efforts,” the lawyer said. “India must monitor the effects of US policy pausing PEPFAR’s programmes on generic manufacturing and supply of HIV medicines at affordable prices for its own public health needs and for other lowto middle-income countries, which may face challenges,” the lawyer added.
What’s The Way Forward?
USAID funding in India amounted to about $141 million or about Rs 1,214 crore for 2024 (partially reported), according to ForeignAssistance.gov. To put that in perspective, the Union health ministry budget for 2023-24 was Rs 80,292 crore and the govt spends about Rs 1,100 crore annually in running a hospital like Ram Manohar Lohia in Delhi. So, relatively speaking, the US agency’s funding is small.
But the US freeze comes at a time when India’s social sector is already under financial stress over the shutting down of NGOs after the govt’s action on Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA) licences.
Also, as India has progressed to middle-income country status, aid from foreign countries, which was about 5%, has shrunk to less than 1% of the total health budget. This has translated to scaling down of projects by multilateral agencies like WHO, UNHCR, UNFPA and UNICEF. Those working in such agencies have seen curtailments in travel, freeze on new hiring, and scaling down of existing projects to low-income states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar and withdrawal from high-income ones like Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu. Still, development specialists say that the gap can easily be filled by Indian philanthropy or the Indian govt as the quantum of foreign fund contribution is not as much as in other developing countries. But given the perception that the govt views the development sector with a certain suspicion, a further erosion in its influence on civil society may not cause tears to be shed in the precincts of power.
