Everybody loves UNICEF and WHO but hates World Bank,” said World Bank country director Onno Ruhl on Wednesday while speaking as a guest faculty at Indian Institute of Management, Ranchi (IIM-R). Ruhl feels there is a need of inclusive growth in India with regard to poverty eradication.
Talking to The Pioneer, he shared his opinions on the public-private partnership (PPP) mode, operation ASHA and his experience working in India.
As country director of World Bank, what initiatives would you take for Jharkhand with regard to developmentIJ
We met the Chief Secretary RS Sharma on Tuesday and have shown interest in educating cum empowering the adolescent and young girls of the state. Given to security issues, there are many arenas in Jharkhand to study on, especially in classic management. Jharkhand has an excellent environment wherein social consequences of economy can be developed.
Why did you quote Public-Private Partnership as a magic bulletIJ
PPP mode can be highly successful but cannot be implemented practically. The key for Public-Private Partnership (PPP) is to be realistic for what each partner can do. Then, they have to understand that there should be a coordination and commitment among them. Usually in PPP mode either the government or the private sector does not turn to be a good partner. In India, Private sectors have the potential and financial powers due to PPP mode’s existence.
What about the 100,000 dollar project named ‘operation ASHA’, which was awarded to Jharkhand in the month of May this yearIJ
Operation ASHA is one of the grant beneficiaries for its implementation of e-Compliance project for treatment of Tuberculosis and preventing multi-drug resistant TB. It is a fantastic project.
What are you presently working on in IndiaIJ
India is a large federal unit along with China and Brazil for us. According to our survey, most of the Indian states have developed in last 10 years (2000-10). In our survey done on poverty circumstances in India we found that sanitation and malnutrition are the main reasons causing hurdles is erasing poverty from villages. As far as inclusive growth is concerned, there is a need of sustainable economic development like that achieved by China and Brazil.
Why the popularity of World Bank is deterioratingIJ
World Bank is known as the development bank of the world but most of the countries ignore human development, health and education and spend money only on politics. That is why our bank has become unpopular.