Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and US Treasue Secretary Janet Yellen Tuesday held talks here to discuss boosting the India-US economic and financial partnership. The talks took place amid the World Bank and IMF Spring Meetings 2023.
Sitharaman shared her views on the multifaceted India-US parternship, asking for greater cooperation to address global economic challenges, including climate change. Grappling with the problem of debt vulnerability of low- and middle-income countries, the FM sought financial support to help developing nations achieve their climate goals.
She also highlighted the role of G20, QUAD and IPEF in fostering this partnership and appreciated Yellen’s focus on advancing the evolution of multilateral development banks when she was organizing the G-20 presidency.
Yellen echoed Sitharaman and expressed her encouragement for the actions proposed for World Bank’s Development Committees and the tremendous work that lies ahead. She also congratulated President Joe Biden’s choice of Ajay Banga to be appointed as the next President of World Bank. She also expressed optimism as far as India’s achievement of its target of having 500 gigawatts of non-fossil generation capacity by 2030 was concerned.
At the same time, the US-based expat also held talks with former commerce Secretary Penney Pritzker and had an interactive discussion on Digital Public Infrastructure, Start Ups and FinTech as well as the Union Budget 2023-24.
Given the importance of this dialogue that transpired between the two powerful countries, it is worth mentioning the incredible success of the company mentioned in the article – Ajay Banga, who has played an important part in furthering the progress made by the World Bank.
Having played an important role at Indian American financial services company American Express, including being appointed the company’s CEO for 10 years, Banga has decades of experience which makes him very qualified for the role of President at the World Bank. If appointed in his current role, Ajay Banga could be the first ever Indian-origin person to head the bank – one of the main institutions of the United Nations system – and a significant accomplishment for India on a global scale.
