About World Bank

• The World Bank is an international organization dedicated to providing financing, advice, and research to developing nations to aid their economic advancement.
• Currently, the World Bank has two stated goals that it aims to achieve by 2030.
  • The first is to end extreme poverty by decreasing the number of people living on less than $1.90 a day to below 3% of the world population.
  • The second is to increase overall prosperity by increasing income growth in the bottom 40% of every country in the world.
• The World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) were founded simultaneously in 1944 at the United Nations Bretton Woods Conference in the United States to support European and Asian countries in post-war reconstruction efforts.
• The IMF and the World Bank are called Bretton Woods twins and are headquartered in Washington, D.C.

Structure of the World Bank

• The World Bank Group consists of five organizations:
  • International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD): an institution that provides debt financing to governments that are considered middle income.
  • International Development Association (IDA): a group that gives interest-free loans to the governments of poor countries.
  • International Finance Corporation (IFC): focuses on the private sector and provides developing countries with investment financing and financial advisory services.
  • Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA): an organization that promotes foreign direct investments in developing countries.
  • International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID): an entity that provides arbitration on international investment disputes.
• At present, the World Bank Group has more than 180 member countries (including India).

Why in News?

• Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has told the World Bank’s private sector investment arm, the International Finance Corporation (IFC), to increase its lending to India to more than $2 billion in the next two years and to $3-3.5 billion over the next three-four years.

Reference:

1. https://www.thehindu.com/business/Economy/finance-minister-urges-world-bank-arm-ifc-to-scale-up-lending-to-india/article65910677.ece