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Swarajya Staff
May 15, 2020, 12:04 PM | Updated 12:04 PM IST
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World Bank has praised the Atmanirbhar Bharat Mission announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to work towards converting the Covid-19 crisis into an opportunity to achieve economic self-reliance, reports Hindustan Times.
Additionally, the World Bank on Friday (15 May) approved USD 1 billion 'Accelerating India's COVID-19 Social Protection Response Program' to support the country's efforts for providing social assistance to the poor and vulnerable households, severely impacted by the pandemic.
Announcing the financial aid Junaid Ahmad, World Bank’s India director, said, “I think PM’s Atmanirbhar Mission is very important in terms of directions and India is not making a distinction between life and livelihoods in the aftermath of Covid-19.”
He further said that the social protection package for India is linked to the central government’s programmes.
“The World Bank’s billion-dollar support for social protection will help India leverage its PM Garib Kalyan Yojana (PMGKY),” Ahmad added.
Notably, this is the second economic stimulus provided to India by the World Bank. Notably, a US $1 billion support was announced last month to support India’s health sector.
This takes the total commitment from the World Bank towards emergency Covid-19 response in India to US $2 billion.
The focus will be to enable India to integrate all of its 400-plus social security schemes at a technology level, the bank said.