Friday, September 23 2005 10:06 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Washington: The World Bank is upbeat on India with Bank President Paul Wolfowitz saying the Government has had 'impressive success' in its development efforts.

"I was just in India recently and spoke with the Indian Government, which after all has done some impressive success in its own development efforts, about how the World Bank can help that Government address the problems of the urban and rural poor in India," Wolfowitz said in Washington yesterday (Sept 22, 2005).

Asked how confident he was about India reaching the Millennium Development Goals, he said, "It is a mixed picture. I think India has made a lot of progress. I think one of the challenges in India and that is what I spoke with the Prime Minister and Finance Minister when I was there is how to move the results of that successful growth more rapidly to the poorest people in India."

Wolfowitz said bank lending to India was now going to focus heavily on rural development, especially as part of the programme 'Bharat Nirman.'

"Our piece of it will look at rural roads and rural water supply. Some very large fraction of the world's poor still lives in rural India. We are trying as much as possible to use our additional resources to help Governments bring up the poorest parts of the population," the Bank President said.

He said the recent World Development Report that focused on equity made the point that it was 'not just a matter of doing this for the poor because they deserve it', but was a huge investment in the growth potential of the country for the long run.