India concerned about risks to global recovery due to rising uncertainty: Sitharaman to WB President

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is in Washington DC to attend the spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. (Photo: Twitter Ministry of Finance)

She said India has remained concerned about risks to global recovery due to rising uncertainty amid escalating geopolitical tensions.

The two discussed a slew of issues, including the impact of Russia-Ukraine conflict, India’s continued recovery from COVID19, India’s G20 presidency.

During the meeting, Sitharaman pointed out that India’s pandemic response has focused on the twin goals of saving lives and livelihoods. India has been successfully running the world’s second largest vaccination programme, administering more than 1.85 billion doses of vaccines, the ministry of finance said in a press statement on Saturday.

"The minister also highlighted India’s roadmap for infrastructure development and look forward to World Bank’s continued support for financing investments for the National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP) and PM Gati Shakti programme," according to the ministry of finance.

Sitharaman, who is in Washington DC to attend the spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank, said, during her address at the Development Committee Meeting of the World Bank, that India voluntarily offered the Covid Vaccine Intelligence Network platform #CoWIN to all countries and is also willing to provide assistance for other public-goods platforms, recognizing the importance of replication of proven and scalable digital platforms.

During the meeting the minister also drew attention to the unprecedented situation in Sri Lanka and hoped for decisive relief to the island nation, said the ministry of finance in a tweet.

She reiterated that India’s growth projection of 8.9% was the highest among all large economies, reflecting the country's resilience and strong recovery.

Sitharaman also met heads of global companies including Boeing to discuss investment opportunities in the world’s fastest growing major economy.

In a meeting with the CEO of Being Defense and President Ted Colbert, Sitharaman discussed opportunities for investments and growth in maintenance, repairs, and operations (MRO), and aircraft leasing.

Colbert told the minister that it was expanding its India operations and was committed to the vision of Aatmanirbhar Bharat. He added that due to the reforms undertaken by the Government, India has the potential to become global MRO hub.

Sitharaman also interacted via VC with distinguished US universities to explore the opportunity of setting up foreign universities or institutions in GIFT City, IFSC.

"Recognising the inherent potential of the IFSC, the Budget announcement paved the way for allowing world-class foreign universities to offer courses in Financial Management, FinTech, Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics in GIFT City,IFSC," the ministry of finance said in a tweet. Sitharaman spoke about the win-win opportunities for the financial services industry as well as the foreign universities operating out of IFSC, and how that can create an ideal global ecosystem for the development of skills needed in the future.

Key advantages for US universities include 100% foreign ownership with no restriction on repatriation of profits, regulatory ease through unified regulator IFSCA, and opportunity to collaborate with India students, faculty & financial industry. Besides, no domestic law will apply there. Representatives of 14 US varsities took part in the virtual interaction.