Global Citizen Festival India gets $3.37 bn commitments

The Global Citizen Festival India secured investment commitments worth $3.37 billion (Rs. 22,940 crores) which would benefit around 50 crore people, an official said here on Saturday.

These include 25 commitments and announcements from policymakers responding to over two million actions and campaign efforts.

Among the commitments are 48 mobile classrooms from HP, Toilet Board Coalition for improved access to sanitation and hygiene for 130 million people in three years, IDFC Bank's proposal to provide 200,000 micro-finance loans for water sanitation to benefit around 450,000 people by 2019.

Around 518,000 actions supporting investments in initiatives for gender equality for girls and women secured four commitments to affect two million women, including International Finance Corporation Banking on Women Group's $2 billion towards banking on women and promoting women entrepreneurship by 2019 end.

The first Global Citizen Festival India, hosted by Maharashtra government, saw a dazzling musical concert headlined by Coldplay, Jay Z, Demi Lovato, Aamir Khan, A.R. Rahman, Kareena Kapoor-Khan, Amitabh Bachchan, Farhan Akhtar, Freida Pinto, Katrina Kaif, Ranveer Singh, Sachin Tendulkar, Shah Rukh Khan, Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, Shraddha Kapoor, Sonakshi Sinha and many more.

The Global Citizen India movement is a 15-year commitment to catalyse India's journey to eradicate extreme poverty, work to influence world leaders and decision makers to enact policy changes and commit significant resources to help solve biggest global challenges through various activities.

--IANS

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