Asian Development Bank to increase lending to India

Some basic info to understand this news better:

•  The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is a regional development bank established on 22 August 1966 which is headquartered in Metro Manila, Philippines, to facilitate economic development in Asia.
• The bank admits the members of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific and non-regional developed countries. From 31 members at its establishment, ADB now has 67 members, of which 48 are from within Asia and the Pacific and 19 outside.

Now, the news:

• Asian Development Bank (ADB) President Takehiko Nakao on Tuesday promised more funding to India and support to the government’s reform initiatives.
• The bank wanted to increase lending to India from up to $3 billion dollars a year on an average to $4 billion a year by 2018, he said, and expressed support to initiatives such as Make in India, Skill India, Clean India and smart cities.
• “ADB aims at increasing its sovereign and non-sovereign lending from the present $7 billion-$9 billion in three years from 2015 to 2017 to $10 billion-$12 billion between 2016 and 2018 using ADB’s expanded lending capacity,” Nakao said.
• India’s track record in repayment of loans, Nakao said, was clean and ADB would be looking forward to increasing its exposure in infrastructure, skill development and urban services, among others.
• He said ADB would assist the government in the smart cities project in Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Maharashtra.
• Replying questions on whether competition would increase after setting up of BRICS Bank and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), he said ADB was working with AIIB to meet the funding requirement for the region.”There are many areas of cooperation and we will be co-financing the projects in infrastructure,” he said, adding that efforts were being made to speed up the process for approval of loans for projects.

Know more on this news topic:

• The New Development Bank (NDB), formerly referred to as the BRICS Development Bank, is a multilateral development bank operated by the BRICS states (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) as an alternative to the existing US-dominated World Bank and International Monetary Fund.The bank is set up to foster greater financial and development cooperation among the five emerging markets.
• The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) is an international financial institution proposed by the government of China. The purpose of the multilateral development bank is to provide finance to infrastructure projects in the Asia region. AIIB is regarded by some as a rival for the IMF, the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank (ADB), which are regarded as dominated by developed countries like the United States