THEBUSINESSBYTES BUREAU
NEW DELHI, JANUARY 30, 2026
In a major
step toward shaping India’s next phase of economic expansion, the World Bank
Group (WBG) and the Government of India on Friday announced a new Country
Partnership Framework (CPF) that squarely places job creation and private investment
at the center of growth, fully aligned with the nation’s long-term ambition of
becoming a developed country by 2047 under the Viksit Bharat vision.
The
five-year framework marks a strategic recalibration of India–World Bank Group
engagement, aimed at accelerating growth with greater selectivity, scale, and
measurable impact. At its core lies a shared commitment to transforming India’s
demographic dividend into a powerful engine of inclusive and sustainable
development by unlocking private capital, strengthening institutions, and
creating employment opportunities across rural and urban India.
“We welcome the new Country Partnership
Framework with the World Bank Group, which is fully aligned with our Viksit
Bharat vision. Leveraging public funds with private capital, creating more jobs
across rural and urban India, and enriching projects with the Bank Group’s
global knowledge will be key to achieving sustainable impact at both speed and
scale,” said Nirmala Sitharaman, Minister of Finance, Government of India.
With nearly
12 million young people entering the labor market each year, the partnership
underscores private sector–led job creation as the defining priority of India’s
next growth cycle. The World Bank Group’s global jobs strategy, which anchors
the new framework, is built on investing in critical physical and human
infrastructure, strengthening a predictable and business-friendly regulatory
environment, and deploying sophisticated risk-management tools to help private
investment scale. This strategy targets sectors capable of generating large
volumes of locally relevant jobs, including infrastructure and energy,
agribusiness, health care, tourism, and value-added manufacturing.
Applying
this global approach to India, the new strategic partnership will be supported
by $8–10 billion in annual financing over the next five years, using the full
suite of World Bank Group instruments and expertise. The objective is not only
to finance development projects, but also to mobilize private sector capital at
scale, ensuring that growth translates into durable employment and broad-based
opportunity.
“India is one of the key engines of global
growth today. Our strategic partnership aims to help India grow even faster on
its path toward Viksit Bharat by 2047,” said World Bank Group President Ajay
Banga, while in India for the announcement. “Creating more jobs is at the core
of our work. This partnership brings together financing, reforms, and private
sector investment to turn growth into opportunity for millions of Indians.”
The
framework is the outcome of a year-long collaboration between the Government of
India and the World Bank Group to rethink how both sides work together. The
renewed approach emphasizes sharper focus on priority outcomes, larger-scale
interventions, and results-driven implementation, reflecting India’s evolving
development needs and its growing role in the global economy.
Central to
the partnership is a strong emphasis on enabling private sector–led job
creation by upgrading skills, reducing barriers faced by small and medium
enterprises, and expanding economic opportunities, particularly for youth and
women. The framework is organized around four strategic outcomes that
collectively aim to rebalance growth and enhance resilience. These include boosting
rural prosperity by diversifying incomes beyond agriculture, strengthening
value chains and market access, and improving the management of scarce water
resources in a country where nearly 60 percent of the population still resides
in rural areas.
Equally
important is support for India’s urban transformation, as the country’s urban
population is projected to double to 800 million by 2050. Investments in
infrastructure, housing, urban services, innovative financing mechanisms, and
integrated planning are expected to act as powerful engines of productivity,
competitiveness, and job creation in rapidly expanding cities. The partnership
also places strong emphasis on investing in people across the life cycle, from
early childhood health and nutrition to secondary education, market-aligned
skills, smoother school-to-work transitions, and more responsive,
patient-centered health systems.
Strengthening
energy security and core infrastructure forms another critical pillar of the
framework. The World Bank Group will help scale up infrastructure by attracting
private capital and advanced capabilities in areas such as renewable energy,
e-mobility, and frontier technologies, including green hydrogen, while also
building resilience to climate and economic shocks.
Implementation
of the new partnership will begin immediately, building on a portfolio of
ongoing and new initiatives. These include support for the Pradhan Mantri
Skilling and Employability Transformation through Upgraded ITIs, backed by an
$830 million loan aimed at working with the private sector to modernize India’s
Industrial Training Institutes and enable more than one million young people,
especially young women, to acquire job-ready skills. In agriculture, the
Maharashtra Project on Resilient Agriculture (Phase II), supported by $490
million, will enhance crop productivity and climate resilience through the
adoption of digital technologies in precision farming. Health sector reforms
are being advanced through the $280 million Kerala Health Systems Improvement
Program, which will strengthen digital health infrastructure, expand eHealth
services, integrate data platforms, and enhance cybersecurity.
The
partnership also extends to higher education financing through a $750 million
initiative with Credila Financial Services, designed to support up to 190,000
additional students in gaining job-relevant qualifications and transitioning
effectively from the classroom to the workplace. In the mobility sector, the
World Bank Group is accelerating India’s electric vehicle transition through a
programmatic ecosystem approach that scales clean transport, strengthens
domestic manufacturing, creates jobs, drives urban transformation, and
addresses payment risks faced by municipal and state transport undertakings
through a dedicated Payment Security Mechanism.
This renewed
engagement benefits from reforms undertaken by the World Bank Group since 2023
to become faster, simpler, and more impact-oriented, many of which were shaped
during India’s G20 presidency. It reflects a new country engagement model that
prioritizes results, private capital mobilization, and the strategic deployment
of global knowledge alongside public financing.
India
remains the World Bank Group’s largest client, with IBRD commitments of $20
billion across 79 projects, IFC commitments of $16.72 billion across 174
projects, and $618 million in guarantees from MIGA. Under the new framework,
the use of IBRD resources will increasingly shift toward leveraging private
sector capital, while drawing more deeply on the World Bank Group’s private
sector expertise and instruments, reinforcing India’s journey toward
high-quality growth and its ambition of achieving Viksit Bharat by 2047.
