World Bank Group President Robert B. Zoellick visits India : Newsletter - Jan.-Feb. 2010
World Bank Group President Robert B. Zoellick visited India as the country emerges from the global economic crisis intent on accelerating growth to meet the aspirations of over a billion citizens and addressing challenges of infrastructure and human development.
Zoellick last visited India in November 2007. This visit was to better understand how the World Bank Group can be useful to India in meeting its growing demands and learning how it has withstood the crisis so successfully, lessons that may be useful to other countries. The World Bank Group made [$5.6 billion] available to India over the course of the financial crisis in loans, grants and equity with the International Finance Corporation, its private sector arm, also establishing an IFC Asset Management Company to help deal with the crisis.
Teachers from Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya in Tonk district of Rajasthan
During the course of his visit to India Zoellick also travelled to villages in Tonk district of Rajasthan to meet and interact directly with rural households. In Gulabpura village of Tonk district, he met with around 100 members from the Maitree Dairy Federation, who were initially supported by the now closed World Bank-financed Rajasthan District Poverty Initiatives Project and SRIJAN, a non-government organization. The women narrated how the Project enabled them to come together to undertake a common activity. They collected higher volumes of milk through a federation structure which helped them generate better economies of scale. This enhanced their marketing and distribution opportunities as well.
At Awa village in the same district, Zoellick interacted with nearly 100 school girls, teachers and parents from the SSA supported Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyala – a residential primary school for girls, many of whom are first generation learners from Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe families. Children and their parents, from historically disadvantaged communities, gave an account of how their experience with these schools is changing their attitude towards educating their daughters.
Mr. Zoellick with students from Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya in Tonk district of Rajasthan
Later, Zoellick met with farmers and members of a Water Users Association who gave him firsthand accounts into the challenges that the water-starved state faces and how they are dealing with it.
This visit by Zoellick takes place at a time when the World Bank Group is deepening its engagement with low-income states. Zoellick experienced firsthand the complexity of the development challenges facing states such as Rajasthan and some of the poverty reduction efforts being undertaken by the State to address these challenges.
While in Delhi, Zoellick also met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee and several other ministers and senior government officials.
RSS