Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh on Saturday left for India, after attending the eighth G20 Summit in Russia where he urged world leaders to engage in collective commitment to reinstate robust growth in emerging markets.
During the two-day Summit, the Prime Minister stressed on financial inclusion, and said that it was essential for inclusive growth.
"We, in India, are currently engaged in a massive exercise to enable our large population in rural areas to have access to banks. This is being achieved through the use of a bio-metric unique identification system which establishes identity and enables the individual to access her bank account through a network of banking correspondents using information technology and mobile connectivity," said Dr. Singh on Friday.
Additionally, Dr. Singh said the World Bank and ADB could create a special window for financing infrastructure development, including for ongoing projects that face a sudden scarcity of funds owing to volatile capital flows.
"The aim should be to create flexible mechanisms which not only maintain the flow of infrastructure financing at times when other investments are slowing down, but actually expand such investments to play a counter cyclical role," he added.
Dr. Singh also said that international financial institutions have the potential to leverage greater private flows to infrastructure.
"The International Financial Corporation (IFC) has done sterling work in many sectors, and a greater involvement of the IFC in infrastructure financing would help catalyse private sector flows into the sector," said Dr. Singh.
"All this will involve additional capital. I hope the G-20 can give a signal that we are willing to provide the necessary capital," he added.
Dr. Manmohan Singh has attended all the previous G20 summits, since the first meet in Washington in 2008.
