Interview with Mr. M P Singh

Chief of Development Operations | JICA India Office | New Delhi|

Mr. M P Singh, Chief of Development Operations, JICA India Office was former Development Officer in the Ministry of Chemicals &Fertilizers, Government of India resigned in 1996. Departing from such a secured position to a new field of international cooperation for the development to work with developmental institution of the Government of Japan, was a biggest challenge of the life. But Singh’s passion to work for the development helped him to work with full dedication, commitment and punctuality. His habit of keen learning at each stage of the life and working within a team helped him to satisfy goal of the life.

For International Cooperation (JBIC) handling Japanese ODA with an objective of making direct impact on lives of the under privileged by promoting pro-poor agenda with policy/governance reforms. Given complex nature of the developmental issues, Singh achieved effective implementation of Japan’s Official Development Assistance (ODA) programs. His passionate work in Water & Sanitation, Urban Transportation (Metro), Railways sectors through effective policy dialogue, harmonized procedures, consensus building among diverse stakeholders and intensive project management have made a real difference to the society.During the year 2008, M P Singh became part of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)works under Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, Government of Japan, thereby administering Japanese ODA Loans, Technical Cooperation and Grant Assistance projects under the one roof.

1. Being one of the oldest funding agencies of the world, India has been the biggest recipient of the Japanese economic assistance for several years prominent visible from transport, communication, infrastructure, health, agriculture, and environment to mention only a few. Could you highlight the success of longtime economic cooperation?

A. Japan’s ODA cooperation to India, first in the World, started in 1958.  Currently, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) is the world’s largest bilateral aid agency and India is its largest development partner. JICA supports India through ODA loans, technical cooperation, and grant aid. In FY19, JICAhas supported more than 72nos. of ongoing projects in India by way of highly concessional and long tenure loans across vital areas such as transport, water and sanitation, energy, forestry, and agriculture, with total annual committed amount of 537.4 billion Japanese Yen (approximately INR.35,000Crore). Since beginning, over 5,730 billion Japanese Yen (approximately INR. 350,000 Crore) in ODA loans have been committed for development across various sectors. Technical Cooperation with India started in 1966. Since then, nearly 8,500 Indian personnel have participated in the various training courses in Japan and over 8,800 Japanese experts have visited India to offer their expertise and experiences. Grant aid has also covered various areas in India including construction of hospitals, health facilities, international convention centre and providing equipment as well.

2. Under your able stewardship, JICA India is witnessing substantial milestones to enhance India’s developmental endeavors. How has the organization been successful since inception to become the bedrock of India’s socio-economic engine in the 21^st century?

We presume that the factor which helped JICA to seemly support India’s socio-economic engine is that the support of JICA has never been restricted to providing of Loans to particular sector or regions but depending on the nature of the requirement, we have extended our support in the form of Loans, Technical Cooperation, JICA volunteers program, JICA partnership program, Trainings programs in Japan and other countries, and Grant Aids. JICA’s cooperation to six major metro cities; Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Ahmedabad have facilitated construction of over 550 kms of Metro Rail network in addition to 4 Lanning of 240 kms NH-82 & NH-83 in Bihar by supporting the Formulation of Master plans, Introduction of latest technologies, Metros, ITS Railways, roads, bridges, etc. Besides, the longtime cooperation not only in conservation of rivers and protection of water resources but providing sustainable water supply for more than 30 million beneficiaries & sewerage services for more than 15 million beneficiaries across India and largest support in forestry sector in various states are testimony to our development work in India. Sharing of the technology, knowledge and experience is JICA’s core competency; like in case of Delhi Metro we induced Japanese culture of punctuality and timeliness in the operations of Metro. The Japanese concept of Satoyama has been introduced in the Forestry projects to ensure integration of conservation and the sustainable use of biodiversity in production landscapes. JICA has also been involved in technical cooperation project in making Indian Railway safer and more reliable, besides the construction of International Convention Centre and so on. Japan’s expertise lies in disaster prevention and risk mitigation, which is why a technical cooperation project in Uttarakhand supported by JICA appropriately plans and implements erosion control work for slope disaster management in forest areas of the State, to mitigate the effects of natural disasters timely and most effectively, as a part of future preparedness strategy.

3. A ‘New India by 75’ cannot be envisaged without ‘Atma-Nirbhar aspirations’. Could you elaborate on the role JICA India has envisioned strengthening the backbone of India’s self-reliance vision

We would like to congratulate the Government of India for its efforts in making India Atma-Nirbhar, we completely support the vision would continue to contribute both technically and financially in it. JICA’s cooperation to develop Western Rail Freight Corridor from Dadri U.P. to JNPT Maharashtra and assisting in development of the industrial clusters along the said corridor in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana, and U.P, would be contributing to India mission a lot. Besides, JICA’s support to MSME sector, railways, and Metro rail, in addition to Bullet Train & other sectors is expected to tactically result in the internal growth of industrial activities, thereby contributing India’s Aatmanirbhar Abhiyan substantially.

4. North East Region (NER) of India is galvanized as a new hotspot and rich investment hub in many of Government of India’s initiatives and of late, JICA India’s endeavors is also catapulting NER to tap the vast potential of the region. Could you please share your thoughts on the same?

JICA has extended a cumulative ODA loan of 184,895 million Japanese Yen (approx.  INR 11,900 Crore) for the North East Road Connectivity Project in three phases. Phase-I covered improvement of National Highway (NH)-51 and NH-54 in Mizoram and Meghalaya, respectively. Phase-II helped in laying bypasses for NH-40 in Meghalaya and National Highway 54 bypasses in Mizoram. Both the Phases helped in improving connectivity in the NER through upgradation of Transit infrastructure. Phase III aims to improve connectivity in the North-Eastern region of India by bridging the long-awaited gap between Meghalaya and Assam through the constructing of India’s longest river bridge across the Brahmaputra river. With the construction of the 4 lane bridge the socio-regional development of the region will be promoted and the travel time between Meghalaya and Assam will considerably be reduced. Besides, JICA’s support to Assam for providing drinking water and developing sewerage facilities in Guwahati and several energies including Hydropower in Meghalaya and Mizoram, Sericulture in Manipur and Biodiversity and Forestry sector projects in Sikkim, Tripura and Nagaland. Grant in Aid Projects in Health sector in Assam are notable interventions assisted by JICA.

5. How far do you think your recent initiative “SDGs Business Co-Creation Lab – Tsunagaru Lab” has a potential to leverage an entrepreneurial vision and a place to connect Japanese companies Social Enterprises in India and what shall be its expected outcomes?

The platform of “SDGs Business Co-Creation Lab – Tsunagaru Lab ” will provide business matching support and information on related events for Indian social enterprises and for Japanese companies that are implementing or considering doing business in India. National and local governments, international organizations and NGOs have been the main actors in solving social issues in India. JICA India is now paying more attention to social enterprises as one of the new actors. We believe that significant social impact (development effects) can be created when social enterprises work with diverse actors to solve India’s various challenges through innovative approaches.

In addition, the partnership between Japanese companies with unique technology and Indian social enterprises will enable them to approach the last one mile, which has not been easy to do so far, and will provide products and services that are appropriate for India, potentially creating a new business model.

6. Highlighting the mission of your esteemed organization being congruent with realizing SDG 2030, how does it expect to strengthen environmental endeavors in India? 

A. JICA provided a loan support of 15 billion Japanese Yen (approximately INR 950 Crore) for “Program for Japan-India Cooperative Actions towards Sustainable Development Goals in India” to help India’s policy actions on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Jan’2019.

The Program’s objective is to promote first-of-its-kind achievement of the SDGs in India, especially in social development, by supporting the efforts of the Government of India (GoI) to strengthen the policy framework and implementation mechanism, thereby helping India achieve the SDGs by 2030. This program’s design aligns with the Government of India’s activities to support districts that have the potential to accelerate the achievement of the SDGs in India. The program expedites the five themes, namely, health and nutrition, education, agriculture and water resources, financial inclusion and skill development, and basic infrastructure.