World Bank to provide $3-5 bn funding to India for 4 yrs

World Bank today committed annual funding of USD 3-5 billion to India for next four years to push development projects and poverty eradication programmes.
"The World Bank Group would work towards continuing its level of annual assistance of USD 3 to USD 5 billion to India over the next four years," president of multi-lateral funding agency Jim Yong Kim told reporters here.
During the year ended June 2012, the World Bank Group gave loan of USD 3.2 billion for various projects including National Mission Clean Ganga.
Kim, who was on a three-day visit to India for the first time after taking over as the president last year, said the Bank will complement its enhanced financial lending with technical assistance and knowledge services to help India improve the implementation of its development programmes.

On whether World Bank is contemplating to close International Development Association (IDA), soft loans window, for India as it has become a middle-income country, he said: "We are in middle of discussions right now about our IDA strategy...We are going to be as creative as possible to maintain our commitment to India at very high levels."
The bank is concerned about the poor, and about 400 million people live in India, Kim said.

"We hope, especially working through IFC, USD 3-5 billion can leverage many more billions for investment in India. We believe that India is a good investment and we will deepen our engagement as much as we can, using every bit of flexibility and creativity to get there," he said.

Kim said India has higher potential of growth than 6 per cent projected for the next fiscal. "We have seen signs of the economy having bottomed out. Six per cent is not a spectacular growth. India has many things going. The challenge is how to go back to the potential."
On the ease of doing business, Kim said it is mostly a procedural issue and it can be tackled.