United Nations, Oct 6 (IANS): India has reiterated its call for reforming international financial institutions to give the Global South its due representation and ensure developing nations have access to affordable and predictable funds.
Speaking at the General Assembly’s Second Committee, whose portfolio is economic and financial matters, BJP MP C P Joshi highlighted India’s financing of the development needs of the Global South countries through the India–UN Development Partnership Fund (I-UNDPF), IBSA Fund (jointly with Brazil and South Africa), the International Solar Alliance (ISA), and the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI) launched in 2016 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Joshi, who is from Rajasthan and heads the Parliament Committee on Petitions, spoke in Hindi with simultaneous interpretation into the five UN official languages.
He said that India was sharing its expertise in digital public infrastructure, financial inclusion and domestic resource mobilisation with other developing countries.
He said the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) should respect national priorities and its unfinished elements should continue beyond 2030.
The 17 SDGs cover a gamut of human endeavours from eradicating poverty, education, and health to the environment, peace, and gender equality, and were adopted in 2015 with a 2030 deadline for achieving them.
India has committed $150 million to the I-UNDPF, and the programme’s unique feature is that it lets the recipients set the priorities themselves and has no loan element.
For the CDRI, whose secretariat India hosts, it has pledged about $70 million.
The global financial institutions like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund were created after World War II with a focus on rebuilding a war-ravaged Europe, and they have to refocus and update their structures to meet the 21st century’s needs, India has said.
