India and World Bank aid

Indian economist Rupa Subramanya Dehejia asks whether her country should continue to accept World Bank loans designed for the world’s poorest countries. For several years, India has been the largest recipient of International Development Association (IDA) loans, and IDA just approved a $1.5 billion project for roads in several Indian states. Given India’s ambitions (including ...

By , a professor at Indiana University’s Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies.

Indian economist Rupa Subramanya Dehejia asks whether her country should continue to accept World Bank loans designed for the world's poorest countries. For several years, India has been the largest recipient of International Development Association (IDA) loans, and IDA just approved a $1.5 billion project for roads in several Indian states. Given India's ambitions (including a permanent Security Council seat), Dehejia finds the Bank loans hard to take:

Indian economist Rupa Subramanya Dehejia asks whether her country should continue to accept World Bank loans designed for the world’s poorest countries. For several years, India has been the largest recipient of International Development Association (IDA) loans, and IDA just approved a $1.5 billion project for roads in several Indian states. Given India’s ambitions (including a permanent Security Council seat), Dehejia finds the Bank loans hard to take:

Should an “emerged” country such as India still receive charity? Especially when we could afford to spend so extravagantly on the Commonwealth Games? Or when the government could afford to give away $40 billion worth of revenue by selling the 2G spectrum too cheaply? Surely, there’s $1.5 billion in government coffers to build our own roads?

IDA has an established procedure for "graduation" based in GDP per capita and other metrics. At some point soon however, international prestige may speak louder than the billions in interest-free loans for which India still qualifies.

David Bosco is a professor at Indiana University’s Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies. He is the author of The Poseidon Project: The Struggle to Govern the World’s Oceans. Twitter: @multilateralist

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