People wait to receive free food at an industrial area, during an extended nationwide lockdown to slow the spreading of COVID-19 in New Delhi, India, April 23, 2020. /Reuters
Indian government Friday signed an agreement worth 750 million U.S. dollars with Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) to assist the country to strengthen its response to the adverse impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on poor and vulnerable households.
The agreement is under the "COVID-19 Active Response and Expenditure Support Program" of the AIIB.
"The agreement was signed by Sameer Kumar Khare, additional secretary, department of economic affairs, Ministry of Finance on behalf of the government of India and Rajat Misra, Director General (acting), on behalf of the AIIB," a statement issued by India's finance ministry said.
Officials said the primary program beneficiaries would be families below the poverty line, farmers, healthcare workers, women, women's self-help groups, widows, people with disabilities, senior citizens, low wage earners, construction workers and other vulnerable groups.
"We thank AIIB's assistance for the government's immediate response to the coronavirus pandemic to provide social assistance for compensating economic loss to vulnerable sections including women and social security measures enhanced for affected workers in both organized and informal sectors," Khare said. "AIIB's timely financial support will contribute to the effective implementation of the government's COVID-19 Emergency Response Program."
The program according to the finance ministry will provide the government of India with budget support to mitigate the severe adverse social and economic impact of COVID-19.
"The current loan will be the second to India from AIIB under its COVID-19 crisis recovery facility apart from the earlier approved 500 million U.S. dollars loan for the COVID-19 Emergency Response and Health Systems Preparedness Project," the ministry said.
The project is being financed by the AIIB and Asian Development Bank (ADB) in the amount of 2.250 billion U.S. dollars, of which 750 million U.S. dollars will be provided by the AIIB and 1.5 billion U.S. dollars will be provided by the ADB.
"AIIB's support to India aims to ensure economic resilience to prevent long-term damage to the productive capacity, including human capital, of India's economy," D J Pandian, AIIB vice-president (investment operations) said.