World Bank Group President, Jim Yong Kim, along with key India officials of the global financing institution, will meet State Chief Minister, J Jayalalithaa, at 3 p.m. today to discuss the implementation modalities of poverty alleviation projects in the State.
On a three-day visit to India, Yong Kim is also slated to meet Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, and Finance Minister, Arun Jaitley.
In Tamil Nadu, the World Bank Group President will visit development project sites outside Chennai on Tuesday, besides meeting top bankers on financing matters.
Yong Kim will also bring up the Tamil Nadu Empowerment and Poverty Alleviation Project, a Rs 1,667-crore effort in association with the State Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Department.
This six-year project began in 2005, and has been extended till September this year. Its original allocation was Rs 717 crore, with the World Bank contributing Rs 540 crore and the State and community funds chipping in for the balance. An extension agreement signed in 2010 made available Rs 950 crore, enabling the scheme to cover 9.6 lakh poor households.
“The meeting with the Chief Minister will include discussions on future projects and fund commitments. Since Tamil Nadu has done well in development projects, we’d like to emulate project implementations here and abroad,” a World Bank official told Business Line .
A press statement from the World Bank says assistance extended to India between July 2013 and June 2014 was $6.4 billion. The single borrower limit for India has been recently raised to $20 billion from $17.5 billion.
As of June 30, 2014, total India commitments from three World Bank arms – International Bank of Reconstruction and Development. International Development Association, and International Finance Corporation – stood at $29.9 billion, across 323 individual projects.