NDB to assess India projects portfolio next year
New Development Bank’s Independent Evaluation Office (IEO) will next year commence an evaluation of the portfolio of projects funded by it in India since its launch in 2015, Ashwani K Muthoo, Director General, Independent Evaluation, has said.
So far NDB’s approvals for India total $7.5 billion, of which $4.2 billion stands disbursed. The disbursals in India include the $2-billion loan extended as part of NDB’s emergency response to Covid-19 pandemic.
“From next year we are going to do dedicated country portfolio evaluation. We are starting this exercise with India and we would do this periodically with other member countries as well,” Muthoo told BusinessLine.
“This is going to be a pilot of portfolio evaluation and the totality of engagement with India will be assessed — what has happened to the project sanctions worth $7.5 billion — and then identify the direction and priorities for the next phase of future engagement with India.”
Muthoo said the IEO has already recommended framing a country strategy for India.
“A country strategy would help identify which sector, which State, how much money, which partner institutions should NDB engage with etc. Other multilateral development banks already have country strategy,” he said.
Rural road projects
Anil Kishora, Vice-President and Chief Risk Officer, NDB, said that the development bank would soon approve new rural road projects in Bihar and Gujarat. It also plans to approve a project in the North-East.
The approved projects in India include RRTS and Metro projects in Mumbai, Indore and Chennai in the transport sector; water sector projects in Rajasthan, Manipur and Himachal Pradesh; ecotourism in Meghalaya; and rural roads in Madhya Pradesh and Bihar, Kishora added.
Covid-19 response
Meanwhile, a new evaluation report by the IEO showed that 400 million people benefited from NDB’s nearly $10 billion loans in response to the Covid-19 emergency in its founding -member countries of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
The India-focused Covid-19 response programmes generated 5.4 billion person-days of employment, with 52 per cent going to women, and ensured 100 per cent of district hospital doctors and nurses were trained to meet WHO standards, with 61 per cent of them being women.
The NDB was established by Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa to mobilise resources for infrastructure and sustainable development projects in the BRICS bloc and other emerging market economies and developing countries. In 2021, the NDB initiated membership expansion and admitted Bangladesh, Egypt, United Arab Emirates and Uruguay as member countries.