Page 2 - World Bank Group

Bureaucrat Nikunj Srivastava named senior adviser to ED of World Bank

Senior bureaucrat Nikunj Kumar Srivastava has been appointed as senior adviser to the executive director (ED) of World Bank in the US as part of key foreign postings approved by the Centre on Wednesday. Srivastava is a 1998-batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer of Madhya Pradesh cadre. The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) has approved Srivastava's appointment to the post of senior adviser to the ED, World Bank, Washington DC for a period of three years, an order issued by the Personnel Ministry said. He has been appointed in place of Gujarat-cadre IAS officer Rajeev Topno. Ashutosh Jindal, a 1995-batch IAS officer of Tripura cadre, has been named minister (economic) in the Embassy of India, Washington DC in place of Ravi Kota, the order said. Hrisheekesh Arvind Modak, a 2008-batch IAS officer of Manipur cadre, has been appointed as adviser to the ED, World Bank, Washington DC. Modak, who was working as director in the Prime Minister's Office, will succeed .

World Bank approves $1.5 bn loan to support India's green hydrogen push

This is the second round of funding from the World Bank towards India's green energy push

Growth in remittances to India may halve in 2024, says World Bank

India received remittances worth $120 billion in 2023, supported by strong labour markets in the United States and Europe

IFC commits $105 million to Brookfield's Bikaner Solar Power project

International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector financing arm of the World Bank Group, on Monday committed USD 105 million (about Rs 870 crore) to Brookfield's Bikaner Solar Power project through long-term non-convertible debentures. These debentures have been allocated to the project's special purpose vehicles, IFC said in a statement. The 550 MW solar power project in Bikaner, Rajasthan, will help boost India's renewable energy capacity and support climate goals, IFC said in a statement. Following its commitment, Brookfield will provide solar power to commercial and industrial (C&I) consumers across India at more competitive tariffs through long-term power purchase agreements (PPAs) and contribute to the nation's decarbonisation goals, it said. This is IFC's first investment in Asia and the Pacific using an innovative hybrid offtake structure where the project sells the power generated to C&I consumers under long-term corporate PPAs and merchant market via ...

Pakistan likely to hike taxes in budget to bolster chances of IMF loan

"Everyone will have to contribute in this economy because schools or universities or hospitals can run with philanthropy but countries can only run through taxes," Pak Finance Minister Aurangzeb said

IMF, Pakistan make considerable progress on extended loan facility

The IMF has opened discussions with Pakistan on a new loan programme after Islamabad last month completed a short-term $3 bn programme

Global carbon emissions pricing raised record $104 bn in 2023: World Bank

The largest single contributor to global carbon revenue is the EU's Emissions Trading System

Govt working on global trade ahead of World Bank business ready report

With the World Bank planning to come out with its first Business Ready report in September this year, the commerce ministry has started working on the international trade topic in detail to further push India's ranking, an official said. Business Ready (B-READY) is the World Bank's new flagship report benchmarking the business environment and investment climate in most economies worldwide. The report assesses the regulatory framework and public services directed at firms, and the efficiency with which regulatory framework and public services are combined in practice. The first B-READY report will be launched on September 25, 2024. The Business Ready report is replacing the World Bank Group's earlier Doing Business index. In 2020, the World Bank decided to pause the publication of its Doing Business report following a number of irregularities regarding changes to data in previous reports. The new focuses on 10 topics covering the lifecycle of a firm in the course of starting, ...

Global economy to continue solid momentum for rest of the year: Survey

A 60% majority of economists, 98 of 162, said the global economy this year was more likely to grow faster than they expected than undercut their predictions

World Bank, IT ministry to come up with state-level DPI adoption index

'The state-level DPI index will help analyse gaps to strengthen the digital economy, support financial inclusion and increase public-private innovation'

B-READY for business

India's investment culture needs strengthening

Cash-strapped Pak makes formal request to IMF for another bailout

Pakistan has made a formal request to IMF for seeking the next bailout package in the range of USD 6 to USD 8 billion with the possibility of augmentation through climate financing, a media report said on Saturday. Cash-strapped Pakistan also requested to dispatch the International Monetary Fund (IMF) review mission next month to firm up details of the next bailout package for three years under the Extended Fund Facility (EFF). However, the exact size and timeframe of the new package will only be determined after evolving consensus on the major contours of the next programme in May 2024, Geo News reported from Washington. A high-level Pakistani delegation led by Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb is currently visiting Washington to attend the annual spring meetings of the IMF/World Bank. Although Pakistani authorities are pitching a rosy picture of the economy, the IMF in its latest Regional Economic Outlook (REO) released by Middle East and Central Asia (ME and CA) said the ...

Role played by India during G-20 presidency appreciated at IMF meeting

During the annual Spring meetings of the IMF and the World Bank there was a widespread appreciation of the role played by India during its G-20 presidency in building consensus on a range of key global issues, a top Indian official has said. India hosted the G20 Summit in New Delhi from September 9-10. The summit adopted a 37-page consensus declaration overcoming major differences on the Russia-Ukraine war and took several steps to ensure the stability of the global economy. There is a widespread appreciation of Indian presidency of the G-20 in building consensus on several issues, relevant for global deployment, conducted of various meetings during the presidency as well as the leaders' summit, Ajay Seth, Economic Affairs Secretary told PTI on Friday on the sidelines of the annual sprint meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. Due to the ongoing Lok Sabha election, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is not attending the annual IMF and World Bank ...

Climate change, war, poverty biggest challenges: World Bank's Ajay Banga

There was no shortage of stressors to the global economy when Ajay Banga took charge at the World Bank almost a year ago: inflation eating at nations drowning in debt, a once-in-a-generation pandemic, climate disasters and Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Factor in the Israel-Hamas war and rising tensions between powerful nations, and today's agenda is even fuller as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund hold their spring meetings in Washington this week. The world's intertwined challenges of poverty which clearly we have seen great setbacks over the past few years combined with fragility and conflict and violence, combined with climate change, is coming into a perfect storm, Banga said in an interview with The Associated Press. "We need to put all of our efforts into this. Banga highlighted new initiatives being announced at the meetings, including plans to provide 300 million people in Africa with electricity by 2030 and 1.5 billion people worldwide with health care .

Make tax reforms, remove exemptions on duties, sales tax: World Bank to Pak

The report reads, "Government should implement austerity measures and promote public-private partnership in government-owned companies"

President Biden's push for World Bank funds to compete with China stalls

The World Bank's two major lending arms committed a combined $72.8 billion last year, with total cumulative lending since 1945 at nearly $1.4 trillion

'US Treasury sees progress on multilateral bank reforms, but more to do'

Other recent steps taken by the African Development Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) were encouraging, the Treasury official said

Janet Yellen likely to reiterate warnings over China's manufacturing power

With its dominant voice in all of those forums, the US is expected to try to align other countries across Europe, Asia and Latin America to voice concerns over China's output and exports

IMF Chief Kristalina Georgieva wins second term ahead of Spring meetings

Georgieva, 70, led IMF's efforts to aid indebted countries through pandemic and has warned about the global economic impact of trade fragmentation caused by worsening US-China relations

IMF under pressure to cut billions of dollars in fees for large borrowers

The IMF released a statement last week saying that "a number" of its board members were open to reviewing policies around surcharges, the fees that it charges nations that borrow more