World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim visits India

World Bank Group president Jim Yong Kim.

NEW DELHI (Diya TV) — World Bank Group president Jim Yong Kim is currently on a two-day visit in India, where he is reviewing the progress of priority areas identified by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014 for the bank to support. Kim is also visiting to help the bank better understand India’s efforts on renewable energy and nutrition.

Kim is scheduled to meet with both Modi and Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in Delhi during his visit.

“India is the world’s fastest growing economy and also home to 26 percent of the global extreme poor. This means that India has a great opportunity to make strong and sustained inroads to reducing poverty and to help lead the world in ending extreme poverty by 2030,” Kim said. “I’m very impressed with Prime Minister Modi’s reforms, and on this trip I want to explore how the World Bank could provide knowledge and financing to advance his government’s priorities. We will do all we can to best support India’s ambitious development agenda.”

Investing in a skilled, healthy workforce starts with investing in early childhood. We’ll support #India’s efforts.https://t.co/kxQv3D03BG

— Jim Yong Kim (@JimYongKim) June 29, 2016

Kim is seeking the Indian government’s leadership in combatting issues such as malnutrition and to reiterate the bank’s strong support to Modi’s stated commitments to increasing its reliance on renewable energy sources.

“Prime Minister Modi’s goal of making India the human resources capital of the world will succeed only if malnutrition is addressed immediately and ambitiously. India has made significant progress over the past few years in reducing the levels of malnutrition in the country, which unfortunately still remain high,” Kim said. “The Swachh Bharat Mission can be a game-changer because good sanitation practices can help address malnutrition. I look forward to learning from India’s experience and exploring ways of working together to increase the impact of current initiatives.”

The president will also visit a nutrition center in New Delhi, a part of the Government of India’s Integrated Child Development Services Scheme, to experience the magnitude of the challenges that the government is facing in tackling malnutrition. While in Delhi, Kim will also visit a skills center to see the efforts of India’s Skill India Mission, and will later participate in a roundtable discussion on malnutrition hosted by the Ministry of Women & Child Development.

India is the World Bank’s largest client, between the years of 2015 and 2016, the bank lent around $4.8 billion to the country. The loans included $2.8 billion from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and $1 billion from the International Development Association. At the end of May 2016, India’s portfolio contained 248 projects, amounting to a committed and disbursed exposure of approximately $4.4 billion.