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Times uncertain, rescue those in debt jam, FM tells World Bank

Times uncertain, rescue those in debt jam, FM tells World Bank

NEW DELHI: Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said India remains concerned about the risks to global recovery due to rising uncertainty amidst enhanced geopolitical tensions.
In her meeting with World Bank President David Malpass, Sitharaman suggested that multilateralism has become more critical as the world is undergoing a phase of exceptional uncertainty.
She said that because of the pandemic and the recent geo-political developments, there is need for the World Bank to come to the rescue of countries facing debt stress. In particular, the World Bank needs to pay special attention to Sri Lanka which is facing an unprecedented economic situation, an official statement said.
Sitharaman and Malpass discussed various issues, including India’s continued recovery from Covid and impact of the Russia-Ukraine conflict on the world economy and India in particular.
The FM highlighted India’s roadmap for infrastructure development and said India looks forward to the World Bank’s continued support for financing investments for the National Infrastructure pipeline and Gati Shakti programme.
In her intervention at the 105th meeting of the development committee plenary in Washington, Sitharaman drew attention to the unprecedented situation in Sri Lanka and hoped for decisive relief to the island nation so that they come out of the crisis. During her ongoing visit to Washington for the IMF’s annual spring meeting, Sitharaman has made several efforts to ensure Sri Lanka gets a helping hand to emerge from the worst economic crisis.in its history
The FM stated that India’s economic growth in the current year is robust and highest among all large economies and reflects India’s resilience and strong recovery.
She said India faced the Covid-19 pandemic crisis with great resilience and made remarkable progress in vaccination and administered more than 1.85 billion Covid-19 vaccine doses.
The FM underlined that India voluntarily offered Covid Vaccine Intelligence Network (CoWIN) platform to all countries and stood willing to provide assistance for other public-goods platforms recognising the importance of replication of proven and scalable digital platforms.

Darshan Shah
the authorDarshan Shah