India's Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has stressed on the need for voice reforms in the World Bank to accord greater say to emerging economies in the activities of the agency. He raised the issue of voice reforms and increase in capital base of the agency at a meeting with the visiting Managing Director Sri Multani Indrawati, according to a statement released by the Finance Ministry. India has been seeking voice and quota reforms in multilateral bodies like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank so that emerging economies could have more clout in the working of these institutions.
Indrawati told the Minister about the World Bank Group's agenda and strategy to achieve twin goals of removing global poverty and increasing shared prosperity, in line with the Sustainable Development Goals, 2015. She assured support for India's development strategies through delivery of diversified programmes of financing, knowledge exchange and capacity building. Issues concerning the Indian economy and priorities of the government too came up for discussion during the meeting. The statement also said that the discussion focused on the Prime Minister's six priority areas for World Bank financing, road map and timelines for World Bank Group's capital increase, procurement, environment and social safeguards framework.
Indrawati was on a 3-day visit to India from September 22-24. The meeting was also attended by Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das, senior officials of the Finance Ministry and representatives of the World Bank.
