As per the World Bank lending report, India is the largest recipient of loans from the World Bank, amounting to $102.1 billion, between 1945 and 2015 (as on July 21, 2015). The World Bank has been lending funds to India for rural and urban development projects related to transport, water and irrigation, health, power and agriculture.
- International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), a part of the World Bank group, has lent $52.7 billion, the International Development Association (IDA), a multilateral concessional lender of World Bank, has loaned $49.4 billion to India over the last 70 years.
- India is followed by Brazil ($58.8 billion), China ($55.6 billion), Mexico ($54 billion) and Indonesia ($50.5 billion).
About IBRD & IDA:
IBRD is the world’s largest development bank and hopes to eliminate poverty by 2030. IDA is the largest multi-lateral source of concessional finance to boost growth and cut poverty.
- While IBRD provides loans and assistance to primarily middle-income countries, IDA helps the world’s poorest nations.
Sector-wise funding to India:
Water, sanitation and flood projects in India received the most World Bank funding (27%), followed by finance (19%), transportation (18%), education (11%), public administration and law (10%), agriculture (8%), health and social service (4%), information and communication (2%) and energy and mining (1%).
Region-wise highest funding
India received a loan of $3.8 billion in 2015, the largest in the sub-continent, followed by China ($1.8 billion) in East Asia and Pacific, Nigeria ($1.5 billion) in Africa, Ukraine ($1.3 billion) in Europe and Central Asia, Morocco ($1.1 billion) in the Middle East and North Africa and Brazil ($0.6 billion) in Latin America and the Caribbean region.
What’s new?
The World Bank and GOI recently signed a $50-million credit line for Nai Manzil, an educational and skills training programme for minorities. The project size is $100 million (Rs 650crore), of which half will come from the IDA and half from the union budget.
