New Delhi (NVI): In a big boost to the country’s Covid-19 response, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) today approved a $1.5 billion loan, that will help focus on immediate priorities such as disease containment and prevention, the Ministry of Finance said.
The loan will also support the Government’s action plan of social protection for the poor and economically vulnerable sections of the society, especially women and disadvantaged groups, the ministry said in a statement.
The signatories to the loan agreement for the ADB’s COVID-19 Active Response and Expenditure Support Programme (CARES Programme) were Sameer Kumar Khare, Additional Secretary (Fund Bank and ADB), in the Department of Economic Affairs in Ministry of Finance, and Kenichi Yokoyama, Country Director, ADB, in India.
“We thank ADB’s timely assistance for the government’s immediate response measures to the coronavirus pandemic to implement (i) COVID-19 containment plan to rapidly ramp up test-track-treatment capacity, and (ii) social protection for the poor, vulnerable, women, and disadvantaged groups to protect more than 800 million people over the next three months,” Khare was quoted as saying by the finance ministry.
“ADB’s financial and technical support will contribute to the sound implementation of the government’s far reaching emergency response programs launched in March 2020,” he added.
Earlier, the ADB’s Board of Directors approved the loan to provide budget support to the government to counter and mitigate the adverse health and socio-economic impact of the pandemic.
On April 9, ADB President Masatsugu Asakawa had conveyed the bank’s commitment to support India’s emergency needs for the health sector while alleviating the economic impact of the pandemic, as well as short- to medium-term measures to restore the dynamic economic growth of the country by exploring all available financing options, the Finance Ministry said.
The CARES Programme is provided as the first support to meet the immediate requirements of the government.
