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ADB approves $1.5 billion aid to India to offset Covid impact
According to the statement, strengthening of public service delivery will be another important agenda, including the extension of comprehensive primary health services in urban areas, and of secondary and tertiary health care systems through public-private-partnership (PPP) modalities.
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Tuesday agreed to give a $1.5 billion (around ₹11,400 crore) loan to India to support its immediate response to the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic, such as disease containment and protection of economically vulnerable sections of the society, a finance ministry statement said.
More such help under ADB’s COVID-19 Active Response and Expenditure Support Programme (CARES) may come for the affected industries and entrepreneurs, particularly micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs), the statement added.CARES gets its funding from the Covid-19 Pandemic Response Option of ADB, part of the multilateral funding agency’s $20 billion assistance for developing countries, such as India.
“ADB is also in dialogue with the government for further possible support for stimulating the economy, support strong growth recovery, and to build resilience to future shocks,” it said.
According to the statement, strengthening of public service delivery will be another important agenda, including the extension of comprehensive primary health services in urban areas, and of secondary and tertiary health care systems through public-private-partnership (PPP) modalities. The loan agreement was formalised by Sameer Kumar Khare, additional secretary in the department of economic affairs in the ministry of finance and Kenichi Yokoyama, country director of ADB in India.
“We thank ADB’s timely assistance for the government’s immediate response measures to the coronavirus pandemic to implement (i) Covid-19 containment plan to rapidly ramp up test-track-treatment capacity; and (ii) social protection for the poor, vulnerable, women, and disadvantaged groups to protect more than 800 million people over the next three months,” said Khare.
ADB’s financial and technical support will contribute in the implementation of the government’s emergency response. “ADB is glad to support India’s bold measures to contain the pandemic while protecting the most vulnerable people. We will continue to engage with the government,” said Yokoyama.
