To push the development projects and poverty abolition programmes in India, the World Bank committed for continuing its level of annual assistance of $ 3-5 billion to India for the next four years. Jim Yong Kim, who is on a three-day visit to India after taking over as the World Bank’s President in July last year has said that the bank will complement its enhanced financial lending with technical assistance and knowledge services to help India for improving the India’s development programmes.
Kim said that the World Bank Group's mission of ending global poverty will require it to step up support for India, as around 400 million poor people live in India. He also said that it was an historic opportunity to accelerate the reduction of poverty in India.
Regarding the economic growth, he said that India has higher potential of growth over 6 percent for the coming years and we have seen signs of the economy having bottomed out. He said that for the current fiscal the GDP is estimated to grow by 5 percent, while the growth rate is likely to improve to 6.1-6.7 percent in 2013-14.
India has become the biggest client of World Bank as it lent around $ 26 billion to India between 2009 and 2013. The support between this period includes $ 12 billion from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD); $ 8.3 billion from the International Development Association (IDA); and a further $ 5.2 billion in investments from the International Finance Corporation (IFC). While, India had requested additional financing to ensure credit growth in the economy and continued access to infrastructure financing.
