ADB President announces $10 billion for India's urban infrastructure
New Delhi [India], June 1 (ANI): Asian Development Bank (ADB) President Masato Kanda has committed up to USD 10 billion, including third-party capital, for India's urban transformation, including metro extensions, new regional rapid transit system (RRTS) corridors, and urban infrastructure and services.
This is a five-year initiative, ADB said in a statement on Sunday.
'Cities are engines of growth,' ADB President Kanda said after meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi here in the national capital.
'ADB will mobilize capital, accelerate delivery, and scale solutions that keep India's urban economy moving and people thriving on the road to Viksit Bharat @ 2047,' the ADB President added.
The five-year plan includes sovereign loans, private sector financing, and third-party capital.
'Had a wonderful meeting with Mr. Masato Kanda, in which we shared perspectives on a wide range of issues. India's rapid transformation over the last decade has empowered countless people and we are working to add further momentum in this journey!' PM Modi wrote in a post on X after meeting the ADB President.
The initiative is anchored by India's flagship Urban Challenge Fund (UCF), which ADB is supporting to attract private investment for urban infrastructure.
Completed analytical work on growth hubs, creative city redevelopment, and water and sanitation upgrades in 100 cities across India is laying the groundwork for the UCF.
ADB is also committing USD 3 million in technical assistance to design bankable projects and strengthen the capacity of states and urban local bodies.
India's towns and cities are projected to house more than 40 per cent of the population by 2030.
ADB has already worked with more than 110 cities across 22 states on water supply, sanitation, housing, and solid-waste management projects, and the active urban portfolio totals 27 loans worth USD 5.15 billion.
On urban transport, over the past decade, ADB has committed USD 4 billion for metro projects and RRTS covering 300 kilometers in eight cities, including the Delhi-Meerut RRTS, Mumbai Metro, Nagpur Metro, Chennai Metro, and Bengaluru Metro.
During his India visit, Kanda also met Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman to discuss expanding metro networks including transit-oriented development (TOD), supporting rural prosperity, scaling rooftop-solar capacities, and operationalizing the UCF.
In addition, he met Housing and Urban Affairs Minister Manohar Lal to map next steps for channelling private capital into urban projects, replicating ADB-backed urban transport successes on new corridors, and creating TOD opportunities.
Kanda visited the ADB-supported Delhi-Meerut RRTS corridor, India's first RRTS, and spoke with women whose livelihoods have improved through project-linked training.
In Gurugram, he visited the renewable-energy company ReNew to discuss stronger collaboration in renewable energy, followed by a roundtable with chief executives from infrastructure, finance, agriculture, and social sector firms. In that meeting, he emphasized that India's private sector can provide the scale and dynamism needed to drive India's growth.
Under ADB's country partnership strategy for India, 2023-2027, it stands ready to provide more than USD 5 billion in financing each year, including about USD 1 billion in non-sovereign operations to catalyse additional private investment.
ADB began operations in India in 1986.
As of April 2025, it had committed USD 59.5 billion in sovereign lending and $9.1 billion in nonsovereign investments. The active sovereign portfolio comprises 81 loans totaling USD 16.5 billion as of April 2025.
Founded in 1966, the multilateral development bank ADB is owned by 69 members--50 from the region. (ANI)
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Hindustan Times
11 minutes ago
- Hindustan Times
Disney sacks hundreds of employees across film, television, other units; 4th and largest layoff in 10 months
Hundreds of employees at the Walt Disney Company were reportedly laid off on Monday. As per a Deadline report, the layoffs affected the employees across Disney Entertainment divisions, including marketing for film and television units. It has also impacted the staff in the television publicity, casting, development, as well as in Disney's corporate financial operations divisions. (Also Read | Jeremy Renner rejected Disney's half-salary 'insult offer' for Hawkeye S2) According to the report, this is the fourth and largest round of layoffs in the last 10 months that have affected many Disney television operations. As per Deadline sources, the "size of the cuts on the film and TV side of Disney Entertainment is comparable". However, no teams have been eliminated. The majority of the employees, as per the report, are based in Los Angeles, USA. The move is a part of an ongoing cost-cutting process at the traditional media companies. Upon his return as CEO, Disney's Bob Iger set a goal of at least USD 7.5 billion in cost reductions at the beginning of 2023, with about 7,000 jobs eliminated that same year. In March this year, nearly 200 Disney employees were laid off. Before that, a major restructuring at the Walt Disney Company happened in October, involving the shutdown of ABC Signature, with its operations folded into 20th Television and the consolidation of ABC and Hulu Originals scripted drama and comedy teams, reported Deadline. 30 Disney Entertainment Television layoffs were witnessed then. The latest cuts follow Disney's Q2 earnings in May this year, which was primarily driven by experiences and sports, with streaming too delivering strong results. The direct-to-consumer operating profit increased by $289 million to $336 million. Earlier, Bob talked about creating new jobs, mainly in Disney experiences, including theme parks.
Time of India
17 minutes ago
- Time of India
SCALED to mobilize sustainable private investment in emerging markets, developing economies
BATHINDA: The members of the Hamburg Sustainability Platform (HSP) rechristened as Scaling Capital for Sustainable Development (SCALED), an initiative of public and private institutions is laying the foundation for scaling private investment for sustainable development in emerging markets and developing countries. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now Signing a joint declaration of intent at the Hamburg Sustainability Conference 2025, on Monday, the HSP reaffirmed their joint commitment to remove structural obstacles that so far stood in the way of mobilizing large-scale investments. Being a joint effort between several public and private institutions, the initiative sends a strong signal towards better coordination. SCALED is putting standardization into practice by preparing the launch of a company dedicated to mobilizing private capital for sustainable development projects more easily, quickly, and efficiently. The new company is expected to commence operations at the end of 2025 and immediately begin to work on investment vehicles, for example to support projects with sustainable impact such as solar farms or entrepreneurship support. As a service provider for the whole market, the company aims at bringing together investors with common interests, set up standardized financial vehicles, such as funds, and find suitable international and local asset managers to implement the investments. Private and public investors can use these vehicles to make their investments in a straightforward manner according to a recurring pattern. As such, the company is foreseen to significantly contribute to closing the existing financing gaps in emerging markets and developing countries. Depending on funding commitments from public and private sources, the company could facilitate several billion USD of private investments in various sectors and regions over the next years to achieve sustainable impact. The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, OECD, and the Inter-American Development Bank, IDB, support SCALED as knowledge partners.
Economic Times
17 minutes ago
- Economic Times
US yields are America's headache, but DXY may be world's concern: Kotak Equities
Live Events Surging US bond yields signal economic fragility, elevated risk perception US faces broader consequences from a weakening dollar Dollar slide could reshape global investment and capital flow trends Indian monetary policy trajectory may not be influenced by high US yields (You can now subscribe to our (You can now subscribe to our ETMarkets WhatsApp channel The recent surge in US bond yields and a weakening US dollar index DXY ) have brought to light the diverging consequences of these two critical macro indicators. While rising bond yields are often seen as a reflection of monetary policy expectations, domestic brokerage firm Kotak Institutional Equities argues that in this case, they are more symptomatic of the United States' weakening fiscal and macroeconomic to the brokerage firm's report, the sharp uptick in yields is being driven not by growth optimism but by concerns over an expanding fiscal deficit , heightened policy uncertainty, and a growing risk premium. These developments, Kotak notes, could remain largely a domestic concern, impacting the US's debt servicing costs and future borrowing outlook, without necessarily spilling over into other the picture is quite different when it comes to the US dollar. A weakening DXY, Kotak contends, carries far more global implications. As the cornerstone of international trade and finance, fluctuations in the dollar's strength ripple through currency markets, capital flows, and sovereign reserve report highlights that a sustained decline in the DXY could prompt non-US investors to reassess their holdings of US assets, reorient global capital movements, and potentially trigger asset repricing across effect, while 'US yields are US's problem,' the DXY is 'everybody's problem,' given its influence on investor behavior, financial stability, and the broader structure of global capital markets According to Kotak, the recent sharp rise in US bond yields primarily reflects concerns around deteriorating US macro fundamentals. The report attributes the movement to market pricing in '(a) continued weakness in US macro (higher fiscal deficit) and (b) greater macroeconomic and policy uncertainty,' which in turn has led to increased risk premiums demanded by brokerage notes that elevated bond yields 'for an extended period of time will also affect the US's fiscal and debt position with new bonds likely at higher rates versus old bonds,' exacerbating the fiscal burden. Kotak Equities warns that a decline in the US dollar index (DXY) could have far-reaching consequences for the US itself.'The true value of the USD may have been masked by its haven status,' the report said, despite the 'steady deterioration of US economic fundamentals over the past decade.'The brokerage pointed to the past funding of the US's excess consumption by the excess savings of Asia and Europe, which had led to rising capital flows into the US and growing ownership of US assets by non-US entities. However, further weakening of the DXY may 'change the status quo and require a shift to (1) lower US consumption and/or higher US production (higher US savings), (2) higher consumption (lower savings) elsewhere and (3) higher yields (risk premium) for US assets.'While higher US bond yields may remain a domestic concern, the weakening dollar could influence asset allocation strategies stated, 'A weakening DXY may have several long-term implications for countries and global capital markets.'The report highlighted that 'non-US holders of US assets may review their ownership of US assets on both stock and flow basis versus their earlier position of unconcerned ownership of US assets given low currency concerns.'With everything said, the report was cautious about whether this shift would directly benefit emerging markets such as India. It flagged the possibility of a 'reset' in global capital flows , though the direction remains to the report, the rise in US yields is unlikely to significantly impact the Reserve Bank of India's monetary policy. Indian bond yields continue to offer a healthy premium over US yields, and India's macroeconomic fundamentals have improved compared to the US over factors such as (1) a likely low current account deficit and a healthy balance of payments, (2) manageable inflation levels, and (3) a 'fair' INR valuation based on the REER offer a cushion against external shocks, allowing the RBI to maintain its focus on domestic the domestic brokerage firm noted Key risks from such a reset could include: (1) higher yields (lower bond and equity prices) in the US for non-US entities to stay invested in the US, (2) greater investment in home markets although this runs the risk of asset bubbles in those countries and (3) change in consumption-saving behavior of 'saver' countries.': Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of The Economic Times)
