London Diary: ‘Broke’ British Council promoting off its Indian enterprise

This contains half of the 40 buildings it owns around the globe, with a complete worth of about £126 million, and different standalone belongings. Arrange in 1934, the 91-year-old BC, as it’s popularly identified, promotes British language and tradition overseas.

Final yr, it reached almost 600 million folks. Nearly 85 per cent of its earnings comes by means of business channels, akin to instructing English and operating examinations; the remainder comes from the federal government.

Its official assertion learn: ‘A British Council that’s in retreat is a blow to the UK within the competitors for affect on the world stage. We’re asking the federal government to behave urgently to alleviate the burden of our pandemic mortgage and the pressures of a decade of declining grant funding to make sure that we are able to proceed with our mission.’

Nicely, is the tip of ‘cultural colonialism’ in sight, then?

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