World Bank approves $1 Billion coronavirus emergency fund for India
India | April 03, 2020 8:34 ISTThe World Bank has announced that India is to receive $1 billion in emergency financing to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.
The World Bank has announced that India is to receive $1 billion in emergency financing to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.
The World Bank has pledged to provide $14 billion in financial support through a fast-track package to strengthen the response of developing countries to the virus and expects to deploy up to $160 billion over the next 15 months to protect the poor and vulnerable.
World Bank President David Malpass on Monday urged G-20 countries to let the poorest countries suspend all repayments of official bilateral credit due to the adverse impact on their economies due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The World Bank has announced increasing to USD14 billion the amount of fast-track financing to assist companies and countries in their efforts to respond to the rapid spread of COVID-19, adding USD2 billion to the initial package.
Hailing the YSR Congress government's initiatives, particularly in health and education sectors, a visting World Bank team on Tuesday said the things Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy learned during his 3,648-km paada yatra (foot march) clearly reflected in his policies.
Consumers around the world may be wasting more than twice as much food as commonly believed, according to a study. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) estimated that in 2005.
The World Bank has projected a five percent growth rate for India in 2019-2020 fiscal but said it was likely to recover to 5.8 percent in the following financial year.
The project is aimed at constructing a 48km four-lane, dual carriageway, high-speed and access-controlled motorway from Peshawar to Torkham border point with Afghanistan in a bid to promote economic development and ensure uplift of the areas adjoining the expressway and falling in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.
Three Republican Senators have tabled legislation in the United States Senate to prevent World bank from lending to China on projects that would be used against religious and ethnic minorities.
Malpass, who is on a three-day visit to India, earlier met Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and members of the Niti Aayog and discussed financial sector reforms with them as well
As many as 97 projects are being currently executed with loan assistance from the World Bank.
India made trading across borders easier by enabling post clearance audits, integrating trade stakeholders in a single electronic platform, upgrading port infrastructures, and enhancing the electronic submission of documents, the report said.
"Global value chains have played an important part in the growth, by enabling firms in developing countries to make significant gains in productivity, and by helping them transition from commodity exports to basic manufacturing,” World Bank Group Chief Economist Pinelopi Koujianou Goldberg said.
Minor formalities remain to be completed on this front before the first disbursement of the sanctioned amount is released, the Minister of State for Food Processing Industries said.
After an aerial survey to assess the damage caused by flooding in Sultanpur Lodhi of Kapurthala and Jalandhar areas, the chief minister announced a project to realign river streams and courses besides strengthening and widening river embankments.
Analysts say, in such a situation the Centre is also not likely to provide any assistance for Amaravati. It has so far provided only Rs 1,500 crore, which is a very small amount compared to the plans to build the capital at a whopping cost of Rs 1.5 lakh crore in three phases.
The World Bank, in a statement on its website, said India on July 15 withdrew its request to the World Bank for financing the proposed Amaravati Sustainable Infrastructure and Institutional Development Project.
The World Bank has decided not to fund Amaravati Sustainable Capital City Development Project, the ambitious project of former Andhra Pradesh chief minister Chandrababu Naidu.
Balakrishna Menon, World Bank India Task Team Leader for the programme, said in the RKP they "will not only bring about additional financial resources but also help leverage other development partners and connect the state to lessons from global good practices."
In the selected 30 municipalities that currently do not have piped water systems, the project will install water infrastructures, including water treatment facility, water storage, transmission and distribution pipe network, house connections including meters, and others, said the Washington-based lender in a statement.
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