ADB & India
By Dr Arvind Kumar
The 46th annual meeting of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) was held at the Indian Expo Mart at Greater Noida (Uttar Pradesh) in the National Capital Region (NCR) on 2-5 May 2013. In his opening statement at a press conference at the ADB annual meeting, the ADB president Takehiko Nakao said: “It is disheartening that in a region of such rapid progress, we still have a population of more than 800 million people living in absolute poverty. This, along with growing inequality, remains an overarching challenge.” At a time when multilateral lending agencies such as the ADB were expected to not only extend greater assistance to lift the 800 million out of abject poverty but also help many Asian “middle income” countries to find ways to overcome the middle income trap, the challenge was all the more great for Takehiko Nakao, who took over as president of the ADB on 28 April this year. Takehiko Nakao’s vision is of three ‘Is’-innovation, inclusion and integration,
India is the biggest borrower of the Asian Development Bank that had extended $2.4 billion loan to the country in 2012 across sectors like transport, energy, commerce, industry, trade and finance. This is the third time India has played host to ADB’s annual meeting. India has warned that the ADB is facing a funding crunch as it is struggling to reduce widespread poverty in emerging market nations and improve ramshackle infrastructure. While placing greater emphasis on development effectiveness and less emphasis on lending volume, some experts suggest a prescription for improving the ADB’s relevance and that should focus on the “three Ps” of responsible development: namely a focus on people, planet and partnership.
