All the World Bank support that India has received since COVID-19 breakout

• The World Bank has announced a billion dollar fund for social protection in India, according to CNBC.
  
• They are also expected to come up with an economic stabilization plan for the MSMEs (Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises) — which will focus on urban unorganised workforce.
  
• This is after the $1 billion support by the World Bank to strengthen health preparedness in India.
  
• Meanwhile, the World Bank is also in talks with the Indian government for a $500 million programme dedicated to the education sector. The Bank predicts that the country would spend 3%-5% GDP in expenditure owing to the resources needed to tackle the crisis.

After the $1 billion support to strengthen health preparedness, the World Bank has announced a billion dollar fund for social protection in India, according to CNBC. They are also expected to come up with an economic stabilization plan for the MSMEs (Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises) — which will focus on urban unorganised workforce.

Social protection:

The social protection support will enable India to integrate over 400 social secuirty schemes.

“We are looking at a package for social protection followed eventually by support on the economic side, which will be to small and medium enterprises (SMEs), creating lines of credit to provide credit enhancement,” Junaid Ahmad, World Bank country director for India told the Economic Times on April 4.

“The key would be really to address the unorganised workers, the informal and migrant workers. These are the types of gaps, if you will, or places where we need to strengthen the existing social protection system,” Ahmad added.

Education

Meanwhile, the World Bank is also in talks with the Indian government for a $500 million programme dedicated to the education sector. The Bank predicts that the country would spend 3%-5% GDP in expenditure, for the resources needed to tackle the crisis.

Healthcare:

It has already extended emergency healthcare support, after the government of India approached the bank on March 20 — for a fast track emergency funding to tackle the coronavirus pandemic. And 12 days later, the World Bank approved $1 billion India COVID-19 Emergency Response and Health Systems Preparedness Project — making it the largest health sector support to India.

This extended support fund was to facilitate the buying of testing kits, ventilators, and protective gears across states to address the needs of those infected with the virus, medical staff, testing facilities and other health agencies.

The World Bank said that the project will ramp up the government’s efforts to contain community transmission. “In parallel, interventions to strengthen the health system will be rolled out to improve the country’s capacity to respond to the COVID-19 epidemic and be better prepared to respond to emerging disease outbreaks, including transmission between humans and animals,” World Bank report said.

So far, it has lent an average of $173 million for health projects each year — for the past 40 years.

See also:
More employees at Capgemini, Infosys, and Wipro are being brought back to offices while TCS is still in wait and watch mode

From minimum wages for all to social security for gig workers ⁠— these are the broad outlines of upcoming ‘labour reforms’ in India