NEW DELHI, Sept. 16 (Xinhua) -- The Indian government has received 2.5 billion U.S. dollars loan from the World Bank to fight the COVID-19 outbreak.
The details were provided by India's federal junior finance minister Anurag Singh Thakur in the parliament on Tuesday.
"The World Bank has so far provided three loans worth 2.5 billion U.S. dollars to the government of India to support its response to COVID-19 pandemic situation," Thakur in a written reply to a question in Indian parliament's upper house (locally called Rajya Sabha) stated. "For health 1.0 billion U. S. dollars, for social protection 0.75 billion U.S. dollars and for economic stimulus 0.75 billion U.S. dollars)."
Thakur said the first loan was signed on April 3, shortly after India announced a countrywide lockdown to aid the COVID-19 related health measures.
The first loan was extended to partly finance India's measures to prevent, detect and respond to the threat posed by the disease outbreak, in addition to strengthening national machinery for public health preparedness.
The second instalment of World Bank's financial assistance to India came on May 15 and has been fully disbursed. The loan came as budgetary support to the government of India for "accelerating India's COVID-19 social protection response programme" to support relief measures to beneficiaries under Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan (prime minister's poor welfare) package.
The third loan signed on July 6 came as budgetary support to the government of India in order to support micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) under Aatma Nirbhar Bharat (self-reliant India) package. Enditem
