Conspiracy cutting India out of experimental programme (4)
I believe the answer is:
plot
'conspiracy' is the definition.
(I know that conspiracy can be written as plot)
'india out of experimental programme' is the wordplay.
'india' becomes 'i' (phonetic alphabet: alpha, bravo, charlie etc.).
'out of' is a deletion indicator.
'experimental programme' becomes 'pilot' (I've seen this before).
'pilot' with 'i' taken away is 'PLOT'.
'cutting' acts as a link.
I am not very happy about this link. It may belong to another bit of the clue.
(Other definitions for plot that I've seen before include "Small piece of ground" , "Patch of ground" , "Draw (graph)" , "Small area of ground" , "Story or piece of land" .)