Nirmala Sitharaman discusses COVID-19, Russia Ukraine war with World Bank president

Nirmala Sitharaman, the Union Finance Minister, met with World Bank President David Malpass on Friday (local time) in Washington to discuss several significant economic issues, including India's sustained recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and the impact of the Russia Ukraine war. They also discussed India's upcoming G20 Presidency as well as World Bank leadership in India.

"The two discussed India's continued recovery from COVID-19, impact of Russia-Ukraine conflict, Single Borrower Limit and exploring the possibility of Guarantees from other G-7 nations, India's G20 Presidency and WorldBank leadership in India," the Finance Ministry said in its tweet.

During the meeting, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman stated that India’s COVID pandemic response has focused on the twin goals of saving lives and livelihoods. According to the Finance Ministery, she said that India has been successfully running the world's second-largest vaccination programme, administering more than 1.85 billion doses of vaccines. 

'Multilateralism has become more critical'

Speaking about the uncertainty in the world, the Union Finance Minister suggested that multilateralism has become more critical as the world is undergoing a phase of exceptional uncertainty. Referring to the ongoing crisis in the world, including the Russia Ukraine war, the finance minister said that India remains concerned about the risks to global recovery due to rising uncertainty amidst enhanced geopolitical tensions.

According to the Finance Ministry, FM Sitharaman highlighted India's roadmap for infrastructure development. "Finance Minister Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman 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 GatiShakti programme," the ministry said.

FM met heads of FedEx, Mastercard & others

During her official visit to the US, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday (local time) met CEOs of large American companies like FedEx and Mastercard and discussed several opportunities for investment in India as the country is poised to be the fastest-growing large economy in the world.

During his discussion with the Finance Minister, FedEx President and CEO-elect Raj Subramanian stated that he is optimistic about India and has major expansion plans, particularly in skilling. Subramanian expressed interest in setting up R&D centres in India and praised the government's commitment to integrated growth through the PM Gati Shakti Master Plan. Notably, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced last year the commencement of a Rs 100 lakh crore national master plan for multi-modal connectivity, with the goal of developing infrastructure to lower logistic costs and improve the economy.

FM also met Mastercard CEO Miebach Michael. She informed him about India's commitment to Digital Financial Inclusion with an emphasis on women and SMEs by developing world-class homegrown technology solutions. "FM Smt. @nsitharaman enquired from Mr @MiebachMichael @Mastercard on how lessons from India's #FinancialInclusion programme can be used to develop solutions for the world," Finance Ministry tweeted.