IMF, World Bank - Current Affairs

Explanation: 
A Financing Agreement for IBRD loan of US$ 119 million (equivalent) for the "Odisha Higher Education Programme for Excellence & Equity (OHEPEE) Project" was signed with the World Bank. 
The Objective of the project is to improve the quality of 'students' equitable access to selected institutions and enhance governance of the higher education system in Odisha.

Project Component:
Result Areas are:
(I) Improved quality of and students' equitable access to selected institutions of higher education: Institutional Development Plan (IDP) Grants (performance – based Financing)
(II) Enhanced governance of the higher education system: (i)Improvement of governance in colleges (ii)Improvement of financial and procurement management and accounting in all government and government-aided colleges.

Explanation: 
A Grant Agreement from the Global Environment Facility (GEF) of the World Bank of USD 24.64 million for “Ecosystem Service Improvement Project” was signed on 16th Aug 2017 by the Ministry of Finance on behalf of the Government of India and the World Bank. 
The size of Project is USD 24.64 million which entirely will be financed by the World Bank out of its GEF Trust Fund. 
The project’s duration is 05 years.
Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) will implement the Project in the States of Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh through Indian Council of Forestry Research & Education under the National Mission for Green India. 
The objective of the Project is to strengthen the institutional capacity of the Departments of Forestry and Community Organisations to enhance forest ecosystem services and improve the livelihoods of forest dependent communities in Central Indian Highlands.

Explanation: 
S. Aparna, an IAS officer from Gujarat cadre has been appointed as Executive Director, World Bank to represent the constituency of India, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Sri Lanka for three years.
A 1988-batch IAS, she is currently Principal Secretary to Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani. At the World Bank, she will replace Subhash Garg.
Garg was recently appointed Economic Affairs Secretary, Ministry of Finance.
The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC) headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi cleared 
Ms. Aparna’s name for the position.
Her appointment order was issued by the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT).
Among the top positions she held in Gujarat includes Principal Secretary, Economic Affairs, Surat Municipal Commissioner and Joint Secretary, urban development at centre.
Known for her integrity and focused approach, she was the most influential bureaucrat in the State administration under Mr. Rupani.
Meanwhile, according to sources, a senior Gujarat cadre officer serving the central deputation is likely to return the state as her replacement.

Explanation: 
Bolivia’s President Eva Morales declared on twitter that his nation has achieved “total independence” from the IMF and the World Bank
The socialist leader published his comments after meeting with his peers Friday at a gathering in Argentina of the Mercosur, a sub-regional economic bloc.
Bolivia begins its process of becoming a full member of the Mercosur, also called the Southern Common Market, which includes Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Venezuela. 
Until now Bolivia has served as an associate member along with Chile, Columbia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname.
Also on Friday, President Morales accused world powers of intervening in oil rich nations such as Libya, Iraq, and Venezuela to “appropriate resources”.
Historically, Bolivia has relied heavily on the IMF for loans to fund their socialist government expenditures. 
President Morales has even previously quipped that his nations past dependence on the agencies was so great that the IMF had an office in government headquarters and even participated in their meetings.
President Morales become Bolivia’s first indigenous leader in 2006, and gained popularity after the nations popular uprising known as “The Cochabamba Water War”, which occurred in 2000, and was waged against the U.S.-based Bechtel Corporation over water privatization.
The World Bank at the time, which was closely associated with the Bechtel Corporation, shed light on the growing debt issues facing the country through policy publications.
According to a report from teleSUR, some of Bolivia’s largest resistance struggles in the last 60 years have targeted the economic policies carried out by the IMF and the World Bank.

Explanation: 
India is the world’s fourth fastest growing economy in the world thus far in 2017.
That’s according to the World Bank’s latest edition of Global Economic Prospects. 
For 2017, India’s economy is expected to advance 7.2%. 
That’s slightly above the country’s long-term growth. 
GDP Annual Growth Rate in India averaged 6.12% from 1951 until 2017, reaching an all time high of 11.40% in the first quarter of 2010 and a record low of -5.20% in the fourth quarter of 1979.
The Indian economy has benefited from a stable macroeconomic environment of low inflation and interest rates.
This has helped shake off a temporary slow-down in consumer spending and a drop in investment that followed the demonetization program back in November 2016 - which took 86% of the country’s currency out of circulation.
India’s economy has also benefited from ongoing market reforms that have improved competitiveness. 
For 2016-17, India scored 4.52 points out of 7, according to Global Competitiveness Report published by the World Economic Forum, slightly above its ten year average of 4.33 points. 
That helped the country climb to rise to the position as the 39th most competitive nation in the world out of 138 countries ranked in the report.
The Competitiveness Rank in India averaged 52.73 from 2007 until 2017, reaching an all time high of 71.00 in 2015 and a record low of 39.00 in 2017. 
Improved competitiveness, in turn, has helped narrow the country’s current account deficit to 0.70% of the country’s Gross Domestic Product in 2016. 
Current Account to GDP in India averaged -1.40 percent from 1980 until 2016, reaching an all time high of 2.28% in 2003 and a record low of -4.80% in 2012.
Financial markets have taken note. The iShares S&P India have gained 20.76 percent over the last twelve months.

Explanation: 
The World Bank has cleared a USD 250-million loan to aid the Skill India mission. 
The loan amount would be used for making Indian youth more employable through reskilling. 
The USD 250 million Skill India Mission Operation (SIMO) is set to increase the market relevance of short-term skill development programmes (3-12 months or up to 600 hours) both at the national and state levels. 
It will help the government of India to better equip the young workforce with employable skills. 
SIMO will be a six- year programme in support of National Policy for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (2017-23). 
Under the programme, persons in the age group of 15-59 will acquire skill training irrespective of their employment status. 
This will benefit 1.2 crore youngsters in the age bracket of 15 and 29 years who are entering the labour market every year. 
The programme is expected to benefit approximately 15,000 trainers and 3,000 assessors.
The programme has also a mandate to offer placement and entrepreneurship opportunities to women and increase their exposure to skill training. 

Need for Programme: Know More

• As per the official estimates, India is in need of additional 109 million skilled workers to work in 24 key sectors by 2022.
• SIMO will support the government’s vision of increasing women’s participation in the labour force and increase greater off-farm employment.
• Higher skilled labour force will have an improved employment opportunity to raise their earnings.
• World Bank: Know More
• World Bank World Bank is one of five institutions created at the Breton Woods Conference in 1944. World Bank is part of the United Nations system, but its governance structure is different.
• World Bank’s headquarter is situated at Washington DC. World Bank provides loans to developing countries for capital programmes.
• World Bank comprises only two institutions viz. the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and the International Development Association (IDA).
• In contrast, World Bank Group comprises three more viz. International Finance Corporation (IFC), Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA), and International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID).

Explanation: 
India on 5 June 2017 signed a USD 39.2 million loan agreement with the World Bank for the Assam Citizen Centric Service Delivery project. 
The loan will be provided by the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), an international financial institution under the World Bank that offers loans to middle-income developing countries. 
The loan agreement was signed by Raj Kumar, Joint Secretary under Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance on behalf of India and Hisham Abdo, Manager Operations (India) on behalf of the World Bank. 
The Implementing Entity Agreement was signed by the Additional Chief Secretary, Assam Government and the Country Director (India) on behalf of the World Bank.
The total estimated cost of the Citizen Centric Service Delivery project is USD 49 million, out of which USD 39.2 million will be financed by the World Bank. 
The remaining funds will be utilised from the Assam Budget. The objective of the project is to improve access in the delivery of selected public services in Assam. 
The Project seeks to enable citizens to access services under the Assam Right To Public Services Act, 2012 in a timely, efficient, and accountable manner. 
The Project adopts an integrated approach to improve access and accountability. The programme duration is of 5 years.

Explanation: 
world-bank Incentives, safe and conducive environment besides a level playing field were critical to boost women participation in the Indian workforce, the World Bank said.
In its India Development Report released on 29th May 2017, the World Bank said the country had one of the lowest female participation in the workforce, ranking 120th among 131 countries for which data was available.
While overall job creation has been limited, most of the new ones have been grabbed by men given the social norms, the report said.
What is worrisome is the fact that the participation level has been dropping since 2005, despite having 42% women who are graduates. 
The report highlighted that India’s potential GDP growth rate can be boosted by a percentage point if women participation increased. Jobs for Indian women remain primarily in the agriculture sector. 
The share of women in services and industry is less than 20%.
Amid lower rate of job generation, most regular jobs were being grabbed by men. India created only 0.9% jobs equivalent of the adult population between 2005 and 2012.

Explanation: 
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) called on Asian economies to learn from Japan’s experience and act early to cope with rapidly ageing populations, warning that parts of the region risk getting old before becoming rich.
Asia has enjoyed substantial demographic dividends in the past decades, but the growing number of elderly is set to create a demographic “tax” on growth, according to the IMF.
Adapting to ageing could be especially challenging for Asia, as populations living at relatively low per capita income levels in many parts of the region are rapidly becoming old.
Some countries in Asia are getting old before becoming rich.
The population growth rate is projected to fall to zero for Asia by 2050 and the share of working-age people, now at its peak, will decline over the coming decades, the report said.
The share of the population aged 65 and older will increase rapidly and reach close to two-and-a-half times the current level by 2050, it said.
That means demographics could subtract 0.1 percentage point from annual global growth over the next three decades, it said.
The challenges are particularly huge for Japan, which faces both an ageing and shrinking population. Its labour force shrank by more than 7 per cent in the past two decades.
The high percentage of its citizens living on pensions may be behind Japan’s excess savings and low investment, which are weighing on growth and blamed in part for keeping inflation below the Bank of Japan’s 2 per cent target. 
Japan’s experience highlights how demographic headwinds can adversely impact growth, inflation dynamics and the effectiveness of monetary policy.
The IMF called on Asian nations to make changes like introducing credible fiscal consolidation plans, boosting female and elderly labour force participation, and revamping social safety nets.

Explanation: 
The World Bank Group on March 15, 2017 approved USD 210 million loan to strengthen gram panchayats in West Bengal.
The loan amount will be utilized for implementation of Phase 2 of the West BengalSupport to Institutional Strengthening of Gram Panchayat Program- ISGPP-2
The ISGPP- II will support 3,342 GPs in the state to utilize untied and discretionary funds provided under the inter-governmental fiscal transfer system.
The program seeks to strengthen local community participation in the financial management, planning and budgeting of projects introduced in rural areas.
During the first phase of the project, performance based block grants were given to 1,000 better performing GPs within 9 districts for investing in priority local infrastructure and service delivery projects.
Till now, 92,000 activities were carried out by GPs under the ISGPP.
Around 54 percent of the activities belonged to the transport sector, and 23 percent in areas concerned with water and sanitation.
The ISGPP-II will accelerate the pace of decentralization to gram panchayats across West Bengal through state wide unified performance based grant allocation system.
To access the PBG, GPs will be assessed on an annual basis through independent Annual Performance Assessment
The APA will be conducted for all 3342 GPs in special performance areas such as project execution, budgeting, planning, service delivery, accounting,financial reporting, auditing, transparency and accountability.
Certain other areas the program focuses on comprise building human resource capacity for enhanced transparency and accountability in local government functioning.
A robust internal audit system will be developed and implemented in gram panchayats.

West Bengal: Know More

• Area: 88,752 km^²Capital: Kolkata
• Population: 90.32 million (2012)
• Official animal: Fishing cat

Explanation: 
The World Bank has approved USD 175 million for the National Hydrology Project in India. 
It will strengthen the capacity of current institutions to assess the water situation and enable them to have real time flood forecast systems across the nation. 
Apart from helping states benefiting from earlier projects to fund and upgrade as well as complete monitoring networks, the national project will also assist new states to manage reservoir water flow better. 
This will reduce the vulnerability of many regions to recurring floods and droughts as a result of real time ground information for the entire country issuing alerts for difficulties encountered. 
The entire project worth INR 3679 crore will be implemented by 2023-24.
World Bank will provide financial assistance for nearly 50 percent of the total cost. 
National Hydrology Project approved by the World Bank Board on 15th March 2017 building on the success of earlier India projects- Hydrology Project I and II. 
This led to real time flood forecast systems integrated with weather forecast in two large river systems - Krishna and Satluj Beas.
This gives reservoir managers an accurate picture of water situation in their region. 
National projects will now scale up successes attained under HP-1 and 2 to cover the whole nation including Ganga and Bramhaputra Barak basins. 
In the context of climate change, advanced flood management and enhanced river basin planning are essential for creating livelihood and sustaining economic growth.
Project can help communities to plan in advance to create resilience against uncertainties of climate change. 

About the National Hydrology Project

• This was approved by Union Cabinet in April 2016.
• It is a CSS with total outlay of INR 3679 crore
• INR 3640 crore will be spent for the national project while remaining INR 39 crore will be for establishment of the National Water Informatics Centre.
• Project will help states to monitor all aspects of the hydro-meteorological cycle and adopt procedures laid out in previous projects.
• This measures how much rain or snow has been received in catchment areas of rivers, the rapidity with which snow will melt, speed with which water is flowing, how much silt has built up and how the water will reach the reservoir and how soon it will work.
• The Project is aimed at improving the extent, quality, and accessibility of water resources information and decision support

Explanation: 
IMF has cut down India's growth rate for the current fiscal year to 6.6 percent. The previous estimate was 7.6%.
The slowing of the growth rate is on account of temporary negative consumption shock of demonetisation after the WB decelerated India's growth estimates.
Growth forecast for the current and next fiscal year were trimmed by one percentage and 0.4 percentage points, due to temporary negative consumption shock .
This has been caused by cash shortage and payment disruption noted with recent currency note withdrawal and exchange, as per World Economic Outlook released by the IMF.
IMF also said after a lackluster outturn in 2016, economic activity will pick up in the next 2 years. This is more so for the emerging market and developing economies.
Global growth for 2016 is now 3.1 percent in line with the Oct 2016 forecast.
The economic activities in emerging markets and developing economies/EMDEs is to accelerate in 2017-2018 with global growth at 3.4 and 3.6 percent respectively.
India's growth in 2017 is projected at growth rate of 7.2% as against previous growth forecast of 7.6 percent.
Indian economy is expected to revive with 7.7% growth in 2018.
Cut in the growth rate comes after WB decelerated India's GDP growth for 2016-2017 fiscal to 7 percent from previous estimate of 7.6 percent citing impact of demonetisation.
India would regain momentum in coming years. India continues to be among the fastest growing countries in the emerging economies.
In 2016, China with a growth percentage of 6.7% has outperformed India. IMF has forecasted China's growth rate to 6.5% for 2017 based on continued policy support.
In 2018, China is projected to grow at 6 percent against India's 7.7%.

IMF: Know More

• Abbreviation stands for: International Monetary Fund
• Formation: 27 December 1945
• Type: International financial institution
• Headquarters: Washington, D.C., United States
• Membership: 189 countries
• Official language: English
• Managing Director: Christine Lagarde
• Main organ: Board of governors
• Parent organization: United Nations
• Staff: 2,700

Explanation: 
International Monetary Fund head Christine Lagarde was on 19th Dec 2016 convicted for negligence over a massive state payout to a tycoon when she was French finance minister.
Though convicted, she was not given a sentence.
The 2007 decision by Lagarde to permit a dispute over flamboyant businessman Bernard Tapie's sale of the Adidas sports brand to Credit Lyonnais bank to be resolved by private arbitration panel was under scrutiny.
The 60-year-old former corporate lawyer is also accused of failing to challenge the 404-million-euro (USD 422 million) award that emerged from the arbitration.
The payout raised concerns given Tapie's overt support for Lagarde's then boss, ex-president Nicolas Sarkozy, and it was subsequently cancelled by the courts.
Tapie had sold Adidas to Credit Lyonnais for the equivalent of 315.5 million euros in 1993.
The bank sold it on the following year for 701 million euros, prompting claims from Tapie that he had been cheated.
Another ex IMF head, Rodrigo Rato of Spain, is currently standing trial on charges of misusing funds when he was head of Spanish lender Bankia.

International Monetary Fund

• Abbreviation: IMF
• Formation: 27 December 1945
• Type: International financial institution
• Headquarters: Washington, D.C., United States'
• Membership: 189 countries
• Official language: English
• Managing Director: Christine Lagarde
• Main organ: Board of governors
• Parent organisation: United Nations
• Website: www.imf.org

Explanation: 
The World Bank Group on 13th Dec 2016 halted the two concurrent processes initiated by India and Pakistan under the Indus Water Treaty.
The bank initiated this move to protect the treaty.
World Bank President Jim Yong Kim informed the finance ministries of both countries to this effect.
India planned to construct the Kishenganga and Ratle hydroelectric power plants on Indus River System in J&K.
Pakistan raised objections against these projects claiming they would affect Pakistan by impacting the river flow adversely.
To resolve the differences between India and Pakistan, the two countries asked the World Bank to appoint a neutral expert and a court of arbitration respectively.
Bank in its earlier communication to both countries said that necessary processes will be put in place by Dec 12, 2016.
Bank withdrew this communication and made the announcement that the concurrent process would make the treaty unworkable over time. 
These processes were therefore stopped.

Indus Water Treaty

• Water distribution treaty between India and Pakistan.
• Brokered by the World Bank.
• Signed on: 19th Sept 1960.
• Signatories: PM Jawaharlal Nehru and President Ayub Khan.
• Control over three western flowing rivers Indus, Chenab and Jhelum vests with Pakistan.
• Three eastern rivers Ravi, Beas and Sutlej are controlled by India
• Treaty provides for dispute resolution mechanism at three levels:
• a. Questions
  b. Differences 
  c. Disputes
• In Sept 2016, following the Pathankot and Uri attacks, PM Modi stopped the Permanent Indus Commission meeting.

Explanation: 
The World Bank Group on 25th October 2016 released the report entitled Doing Business 2017: Equal Opportunity for All.

• It is the 14th report in a series of annual reports measuring the regulations that promote business activity as opposed to those that constrain it
• Data in Doing Business 2017 report are current as per June 1, 2016
• Indicators are used to analyse economic outcomes and identify the nature of reforms that have been brought about through business regulation
• It finds that entrepreneurs in 137 economies saw improvements in local regulatory frameworks in the previous year- between June 2015 and 2016, the report documented 283 business reforms
• Reforms reducing the complexity and cost of regulatory processes were common in 2015-2016
• The next most common reforms were in the areas of paying taxes, obtaining credit and trading across borders
• In its global country rankings of business efficiency, the coveted first rank was awarded to New Zealand
• Singapore followed second and Denmark was at the third positions
• Hong Kong SAR, China, Korea, Norway, the UK and United States as well as Sweden were among the top 10 countries in international rankings
• Brunei Darussalam, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Belarus, Indonesia, Serbia, Georgia, and Pakistan, the UAE and Bahrain were top gainers
• These top 10 rank improving countries implemented 48 regulatory reforms marking ease of doing business
• All the economies in the region implemented the reforms easing the process of doing business, though Europe and Central Asia were regions with the most number of economies implementing at least one reform
• Developing countries carried out more than 75 percent of the 283 reforms in the past year
• Sub-Saharan Africa accounted for over one-quarter of all reforms
• Starting a business takes 21 days worldwide compared with 46 days 10 years ago
• It also features expansions to the Paying Taxes indicator to cover post-filing processes such as tax refunds, tax audits and administrative tax appeals to better comprehend the overall tax environment
• It also studies procurement in 78 economies across 5 main areas: accessibility and transparency, bid security, payment delays, incentives for MSMEs and complaint mechanisms
• Doing Business includes a gender dimension in 4 of 11 topic sets- Starting a business, registering property and enforcing contract presenting a gender dimension for the first time this year
• The report features 6 case studies in areas of getting electricity, gaining credit, legal rights, credit information, protection of minority investors, paying taxes and trading across borders
• East Asia and the Pacific is home to two of the world’s leading 10 economies– Singapore, the Hong Kong SAR, China and two of the top 10 improvers– Indonesia and Brunei Darussalam
• The economies of the region implemented close to 45 reforms to improve the ease of carrying out business
• The Europe and Central Asia was a major reformer in the past year, with Belarus, Georgia, Serbia and Kazakhstan among the top 10 improvers in the world
• Business reform activity accelerating in latin America and the Caribbean with over 2/3 of the region’s economies implementing around 32 reforms in the past year, compared with 24 reforms in the previous year
• MENA region saw the most reforms carried out in the past year since 2009, with over 35 reforms in 15 of the region’s 20 economies
• UAE and Bahrain were among the world’s top 10 improvers
• In South Asia, 5 of the region’s 8 economies implemented a total of 11 reforms in the past year as against nine in the previous year
• Pakistan, which is among the world’s top 10 improvers, implemented several reforms as did India and Sri Lanka
• African economies stepped up massive pace of reforms as well
• India moved one rank up to the 130th position
• This marginal improvement came, marking slight improvement in four indicators- getting electricity, enforcing contracts, trading across borders and registering property
• In the 2017 rankings, the only major improvement for India was seen in getting electricity
• In terms of starting a business, Indian ranking went down to 155 from 151 last year
• This was also true for registering a property
• For resolving insolvency, the position of the country slid a single rank to 136
• India’s ranking in trading across borders fell by 10 spots to 143 though the World Bank recognised Indian reforms in making imports and exports easier through the launch of the ICEGATE portal
• The ranking covers data from Delhi and Mumbai, with weights of 53 and 47 percent respectively

Explanation: 
World Bank India, the world’s largest remittance recipient in 2015 may receive a remittance of USD 65.5 billion this year, a drop of 5 percent according to the World Bank.

• The reason for this is weak economic growth in remittance source countries and cyclic low oil prices
• In 2016, remittance flows are expected to decline by 5% in India and 3.5% in Bangladesh while they will grow by 5.1% in Pakistan and 1.6 percent in Sri Lanka, the latest report on remittances said
• Despite the drop, India is topping the countries receiving remittance this year, according to most estimates
• The World Bank indicated in 2016, India is expected to receive a remittance of USD 65.5 billion followed by China (USD 65.2 billion)
• Pakistan is positioned at number 5 and estimated to receive USD 20.3 billion in 2016
• Remittances to South Asia are expected to decline by 2.3 percent in 2016 following a 1.6 percent decline in 2015
• This is due to weak economic growth in remittances source countries and cyclic low oil prices
• India retained its top spot in 2015, attracting close to USD 69 billion in remittances according to the World Bank
• Remittances from GCC countries continued to decline on account of lower oil prices and about market nationalisation policies in Saudi Arabia
• Gulf Cooperation Council is an alliance of 6 Middle Eastern companies- Kuwait, Saudi arabia, UAE, Oman, Bahrain and Qatar
• This is set against the backdrop of tepid global growth, remittance flows to low and middle income countries to low and middle income countries
• New normal of slow growth has been entered and in 2016, remittance flows to LMIC are projected to reach USD 442 billion, marking an increase of 0.8percent over 2015
• Modest recovery in 2016 is largely driven by an increase in remittance flows to Latin America and the Caribbean on the basis of a stronger economy in the US
• By contrast, the remittance flows to other developing regions either fell or recorded a deceleration in growth
• Low prices continued to be a factor in reduced remittance flows from Russia and the GCC countries
• Additionally, structural factors have also played a role in dampening remittances growth
• Anti-money laundering efforts have prompted banks to shit accounts of money transfer operators, diverting activity to informal channels
• Remittances continue to be an important component of the global economy, surpassing international aid
• This new normal of weak growth in remittances can impact economies across the globe and create a new set of challenges for economic growth.

Explanation: 
World Bank has reappointed President Jim Yong Kim as he was the only candidate in a process criticised by the World Bank staff and campaigners as lacking transparency and dominated by the United States.

• Bank’s board offered a strong endorsement of Kim’s record including setting the goal of eliminating extreme global poverty by 2030 and an internal reorganisation to promote better coordination which provoked staff dissent
• Board also said an effort under Kim to cut bank spending reduced administrative costs by USD 400 million, money then reinvested to support the bank’s goals.
• Expenditure review is on track, allowing the organisation to increase its support for countries and focusing on delivering results more quickly
• The Bank’s largest shareholder has chosen all World Bank presidents since the creation of the institution in the 1940s- this is the United States
• Kim was the first US nominee to face a challenger when Nigeria's Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala entered the contest.
• Kim received the US endorsement almost immediately after the window for nominations for the term beginning next July opened, perhaps warding off challengers and avoiding a repeat of 2012.
• Bank’s staff association held that WB faced a crisis of leadership

Explanation: 
World Bank President Jim Yong Kim announced American economist Paul Romer will succeed Kaushik Basu as the Chief Economist and Senior VP of the World Bank.

• Romer’s appointment will take effect from September 2016; he is currently NYU professor and director of the University’s Marron Institute of Urban Management.
• WB comprises two institutions IBRD and IDA and was created in 1944 along with the IMF.

Explanation: 
IMF on June 7th 2016 approved the US $1.5 billion loan to Sri Lanka. IMF has transferred 168 million US dollars as the first instalment with immediate effect to provide support for the country’s economy

• IMF executive board accepted the 36 month extended arrangement under Extended Fund Facility with Sri Lanka under SDR
• With an early disbursement of 168.1 million US dollars to be made immediately, the remaining amount will be settled in 6 instalments on quarterly review
• Additional 650 million US dollars support will be brought to other multilateral and bilateral loans bring total support to US 2.2 billion US dollars

Explanation: 
Loan and projects agreement for WB assistance of US $100 million for the Karnataka Urban Water Supply Modernisation project was signed between Government of India/Karnataka and the World Bank.

• Objective was to provide city wide access to continuous piped water supply in eligible cities in the state of Karnataka
• The aim is also to strengthen service delivery arrangements at the city level
• KUIDFC is the implementing agency for this project
• Project will have 4 broad components namely Capital Investment Program, Institution Building, Technical Assistance for Sector Development and Project Management.