India has signed a $400-million pact with the World Bank to help the poor and vulnerable who had to witness the worst outcomes of the coronavirus crisis, as per the World Bank report.

This will be the second aid India is going to provide to poor communities. The first operation of $750 million was approved in May this year.

The $400-million credit has been extended by World Bank’s concessionary lending arm International Development Association (IDA).

According to the officials, the programme will embolden the capability of state and national governments in India so that they can run outreach programs helping the poor and vulnerable from the shocks of the Covid-19 pandemic.

“The Covid-19 crisis has brought to the fore the risks that migrants and the urban poor face and the need for governments to strengthen preparedness for future disasters of this nature,” said CS Mohapatra, Additional Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance. “This programme will help further expand and deepen the coverage of India’s social protection systems by helping these vulnerable groups in urban and peri-urban areas across the country,” he added.

The agreement was signed by Mohapatraon behalf of the Government of India and Sumila Gulyani, Acting Country Director, India, on behalf of the World Bank.

Flexible funding

According to the report, the proposed reforms will allow States to access flexible funding from disaster response funds to design and implement appropriate social protection responses to Covid-19 and future disasters.

Given that larger shares of Covid-19 cases in India are currently in urban and peri-urban areas, geographically targeted support to these hot-spot districts will help deepen social protection coverage in urban areas.

The program was prepared in collaboration with the Asian Development Bank (ADB), Agence Française de Développement (AFD) and Kreditanstalt Fur Wiederaufbau (KfW).

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