India yesterday boasted it is to launch a record-breaking space mission – as Britain continues to pour millions of pounds of aid money into the country.

The nation has also revealed ambitious plans to explore Jupiter and Venus.

A rocket carrying 103 satellites will blast off next month from southern India – putting the nation at the forefront of the space race.

A rocket carrying 103 satellites will blast off next month from southern India – putting the nation at the forefront of the space race (stock image)

Many of the record-breaking number of satellites on the rocket belong to other countries and India will earn lucrative fees for putting them into orbit

Many of the record-breaking number of satellites on the rocket belong to other countries and India will earn lucrative fees for putting them into orbit.

However, more than £185million from Britain’s controversial overseas aid budget was lavished on India in 2015.

And, despite a pledge to stop handing money to the world’s fastest-growing economy, some £70million from the UK’s bloated foreign aid budget continued to flow to it through other channels. This includes money to pay for assisting India on how to use its own cash.

The rocket will blast off from the southern spaceport of Sriharikota carrying three Indian satellites and 100 from countries including the US, France and Germany. If the launch succeeds, India will become the country to launch the most satellites in one go, leaving behind Russia, which launched 39 in June 2014.

Daily Mail campaign The £70million a year that continues to be handed to India out of Britain’s aid budget could pay for more than 18.4million hot meals for the elderly. Meals on Wheels, at the average cost of £3.80 each, are delivered to the most vulnerable pensioners, providing a lifeline to those who are housebound. Nearly half of councils – 45 per cent – have cut the scheme since 2010 due to Government funding restrictions. Some 63 out of 140 local authorities that replied to a Freedom of Information request about the service said they had scrapped it. Others increased the fees by an average of 20 per cent. Just a tenth of Britain’s generous £12billion annual aid budget could fund 315million meals on wheels for the elderly. Advertisement

Indian Space Research Organisation associate director M Nageswara Rao said yesterday: ‘We are looking at other planets that we can explore... two of them are Jupiter and Venus.’

Last night Tory MP Andrew Rosindell said: ‘If India has the money to spend on rockets then one has to question whether it is sensible for us to continue handing them money.’

Tory MP Peter Bone added: ‘I don’t want to see any more money given to India, given their status in the world.’

Last June, India successfully launched a rocket carrying 20. In May, it launched its first mini space shuttle.

Four years ago then-international development minister Andrew Mitchell announced the end of the main aid programme, saying: ‘We are walking the last mile with them, we won’t be there forever.’

But the Department for International Development, or DfID continues to fund projects that boost India’s economy.

Last year the watchdog, the Independent Commission for Aid Impact, found countries which DfID had pledged to stop giving cash to were still receiving money through other means.

A total of £30million was handed to India for assistance in how to use their own money to help alleviate poverty for 2016-17. A further £40million was earmarked for ‘development capital investments’, delivered in the form of loans or equity investments to Indian firms and financial institutions. A DfID spokesman said: ‘No UK aid money is spent on helping developing countries to put people into space. As set out four years ago, we have now ended traditional financial aid to India and moved towards a more strategic relationship which focuses on sharing skills and expertise.’

■ Britain is one of just six countries which spends 0.7 per cent of its national income on foreign aid, it was confirmed last night.