LONDON: Britain has launched an India Country Plan for 2008-2015 under which it will spend 825 million pounds in the next three years to help India achieve the Millennium Development Goal (MGD) and assist the poorest of the poor in the country.

"Our future partnership with India will build in Department for International Development's (DIFD) proven strengths and work with the three faces of India - Global India, Developing India and Poorest India," Douglas Alexander MP, International Development Secretary said last night while launching the Plan in the Parliament House.

Noting the UK and India shared a unique history, Alexander said: "the launch of this Plan marks our desire to look to the future together as allies in the fight against global poverty. It is because a third of the poor people in the world live in India and this has been DFID's largest country programme for more than a decade."

"In a country of this size it is a bold ambition to give every mother the healthcare she needs to give birth in safety and raise a healthy child, to give every child a chance to learn and enough food to eat. This strategy represents a roadmap for how we will work in partnership with the Government of India to get close to these goals," he said.

"We also recognise that India now has a massive contribution to make to the elimination of poverty worldwide. It will be a privilege to work alongside India as it does so, and this strategy sets out that intention," he said, adding the two countries have a real opportunity to reduce global poverty and move the world closer to meeting the MGD commitments by 2015.