March 14, 2018 / 10:37 AM / Updated 2 hours ago

World Bank plans to boost India lending by $1 billion/year for next five years: India head

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - The World Bank plans to raise lending to India by about $1 billion every year for the next five years from the current $3 billion to $3.5 billion, its country director to India said on Wednesday.

FILE PHOTO - A man is silhouetted against the logo of the World Bank at the main venue for the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank annual meeting in Tokyo October 10, 2012. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon

The lending will be mainly for infrastructure projects, Junaid Ahmad said.

Last November, India jumped into 100th place on the World Bank’s ranking of countries by Ease of Doing Business for the first time in its report for 2018, up about 30 places, driven by reforms in access to credit, power supplies and protection of minority investors.

Reporting by Manoj Kumar; Writing by Malini Menon; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani