Statement November 27, 2017 Letter to the WB on Amaravati Case of Inspection Panel To The Executive Directors, The World Bank Washington DC Dear Executive Directors, We, the representatives of people’s movements, civil society organisations, and concerned citizens, write to the Board of World Bank Group to draw your urgent attention to a few critical …
Continue reading Letter to the WB on Amaravati Case of Inspection Panel
By Nancy Alexander This year, the G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors’ Meeting on October 12-13 overlapped with the IMF-World Bank annual meeting on October 13-15 in Washington, DC. As of December 1, 2017, Argentina becomes G20 President with the past and future Presidents (Germany and Japan, respectively) as part of the G20 Troika. …
Continue reading IMF and World Bank: Marching to a G20 Tune?
Financial Analysis of the Blue Economy: Sagarmala’s Case in Point by Dr Himanshu Damle of Public Finance Public Accountability Collective, New Delhi and could be reached at himanshudamle@pfpac.net The article was originally published here in an abridged form.
By Joe Athialy and Monalisa Barman For Indian corporations, the grass seems to be getting greener the other side. Investments and acquisitions abroad have been the hallmark of Indian corporations the past decade and a half. While acquisitions of Jaguar Cars and Land Rover & Corus in the UK, Kashagan Oilfields in Kazaksthan, Port Terminals in …
Continue reading India’s Investments Abroad: How Accountable Are We!
By Tani Alex For those closely looking at the trajectories of IFIs, especially the current trends of the New Development Bank (NDB) or the BRICS Bank, well, it’s all pancakes and fritters with news of NDB and BRICS Xiamen Summit all around. The Bank, with 11 projects of over $1.5 billion already in their sack …
~ Maju Varghese Every year, India pays an enormous amount of money as commitment charges to the multilateral institutions for not utilising the loans sanctioned by them. Investopedia defines commitment charges as the fee charged by the lender to a borrower for an unused or un-disbursed loan since it has set aside the funds for the …
Continue reading India paid over 600 crores between 2009-2015 to the IFIs for not using their loans
The Asian Development Bank was conceived in the early 1960s as a financial institution that would foster economic growth and cooperation in Asia. India was a founding member of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and is now the fourth-largest shareholder. ADB commenced operations in India in 1986 and has approved 240 loans totalling $36.8 billion. Asian …
Continue reading 50 years of ADB – The Indian story of resistance
After a Judge declared World Bank immunity cases “wrongly decided,” the communities affected by the Tata Mundra project approach US court to review “absolute immunity” doctrine Communities harmed by Tata Mundra coal power plant in India continue to seek justice from World Bank Group’s International Finance Corporation July 26, 2017, Washington, D.C., and Mundra: After …
~ Joe Athialy With Subhash Chandra Garg assuming charge as secretary of the Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) in the Finance Ministry, the position of the Indian Executive Director (ED) at the World Bank has fallen vacant. The 1983-batch IAS officer of Rajasthan cadre, Garg was the ED at the World Bank from Nov 2014 until June 2017. …
Continue reading Appointment of a new Indian ED at the World Bank raises a few questions
By Joe Athialy Like India once had a Ministry of Disinvestment, it’s time she has a Ministry of Loss Making. How else can one understand government’s eagerness to buy out all loss-making projects, whether in coal, hydro or steel sectors, collectively a few lakhs of crores of rupees worth? Thermal power projects of about 25,000 …
Working Group on IFIs 