India must now focus more on rural sector: World Bank

A clear shift from the insistence on various reforms and phasing out of governmental subsidies to focus on the real developmental issues is by itself an image boosting change for the World Bank in India.

A subtle change in the World Bank's attitude towards the priorities of the present day government was visibly amplified when the Bank's country director Michael Carter declared here on Friday that India's focus must be on the rural sector, which supports two-thirds of the population.

The paradox is that the very state, which was once termed as 'World Bank laboratory', had brought the rural agenda before the entire country by declaring agriculture and irrigation sectors as top priorities after the change of guard in the recent elections.

Delivering the C C Desai memorial lecture on the theme 'World Bank and India: Working in cooperation for the Achievement of MDGs (Millennium Development Goals)', Carter stated that improving rural infrastructure and livelihood opportunities is the key.

Elaborating on the factors that influenced the recent policy shift, the World Bank country director said: "The new country strategy, or CAS as it is known, aligns itself exactly with the message emanating strongly from India's people, opinion leaders and policy makers, and is expressly geared towards helping India achieve the MDG outcomes".

In line with the new priorities, the Bank's programme and lending will be expanded in the infrastructure sector, which include roads, transport, power, water supply and sanitation, irrigation and urban development, Carter said.

The state government's Rs 46,000 crore ambitious irrigation infrastructure development programme, thus, received the legitimacy of the World Bank, besides clearing the doubts on the Bank's lending plans to Andhra Pradesh.

In fact, the state government has applied for a Rs 3,000 crore loan from the World Bank, to invest on irrigation projects and roads and bridges.

"If I were to sum up the challenge before India in one word, it would perhaps be "" inclusion. How do we ensure that every section of the population is included in the process of growth and development, and that every citizen has equal access to the benefits and opportunities that economic progress will bring?" Carter pointed out while delving on the deep division in the Indian society.

"This is the India where crisis-prone agriculture sector still supports two-thirds of the population and is an increasingly unreliable source of livelihood... Thus India at this time is occupying two worlds simultaneously. In the first, economic reform and social changes have begun to take hold and growth has had an impact on people's lives. In the other, citizens appear almost completely left behind. Clearly, a lot more remains to be done, he observed.