Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Thursday, Jan 23, 2003
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Thursday, Jan 23, 2003 |
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Industry & Economy
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Economy ADB to extend $8-b aid package for India Our Bureau
NEW DELHI, Jan. 22 THE Asian Development Bank (ADB) plans to extend an $8-billion assistance package to India spread over four years. The aid package was finalised following discussions that the ADB programming mission had with the Ministry of Finance here on Thursday on the bank's operational country strategy and assistance programme for India for the period 2003-06. "The mission will recommend to the management of ADB an assistance programme totalling approximately $8 billion (about Rs 40,000 crore) over the four-year period, or an average annual assistance level of about $2 billion," the ADB Director-General (South Asia), Mr Yoshihiro Iwasaki, told mediapersons here. The bulk of this package, Mr Iwasaki said, would be in the form of loans although also included is a grant component of about $53 million. Over 70 per cent of the aid package would be allocated for infrastructure projects such as national and State highways, rural roads, railways, inland waterways, power projects (hydel systems) and gas distribution systems to provide cleaner fuel. While another 14 per cent of the assistance is to be allocated to other urban infrastructure such as waste supply, sanitation, sewerage and solid waste management, the balance is to be ploughed into agriculture, rural development and financial sectors. Several of these projects are to be concentrated to the new focal States, namely, Chhattisgarh, Assam and Sikkim. Earlier, State-level aid had been extended to States such as Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Kerala which are under the structural adjustment loan programme. Explaining the bank's strategic approach in designing the aid package, Mr Sudipto Mundle, ADB's Chief Economist for India, noted that the main thrust is to assist the Centre in reducing poverty through infrastructure-led growth.
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