World Bank group president to visit India

New Delhi, July 20 :

World Bank group President Jim Yong Kim will be on a three-day visit to India starting Monday to review the bank’s supported projects and understand the development priorities of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government.

During the three-day visit, Jim is scheduled to meet India’s top policy makers, including Prime Minister Modi and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley.

“I look forward to meeting Prime Minister Modi and Finance Minister Jaitley to understand their development priorities, and determine how the financial and knowledge resources of the World Bank Group can be best allocated to support them,” Jim said in a statement.

Besides the national capital, Jim is also scheduled to visit bank-supported project sites in Tamil Nadu to see the challenges of India’s rural-urban transformation.

India is one of the top recipients of the World Bank’s aid. The World Bank Group assistance to India between July 2013 and June 2014 amounted to $6.4 billion.

This included $2 billion from International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), $3.1 billion from the International Development Association (IDA), and $100 million from the Clean Technology Fund that the World Bank Group administers.

During that period, the World Bank Group’s private sector arm, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), committed $1.2 billion in India.

(IANS)