Indian American Ajay Banga, who is in Gandhinagar in Gujarat to attend the

third G20 Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors Meeting, had earlier spoken with ANI
on Monday and said

that he is more optimistic today about India economically than he has been for a long time and
lauded the government’s initiatives towards digitization of infrastructure.
The World Bank President referred to IMF and World Bank predictions about the world getting a
little challenging for a year or so and asserted that a forecast is not destiny.
In an exclusive interview with ANI on the sidelines of the meeting, Banga said digitisation has
made it easier for people to access services and he is a “big fan” of it.
“You can’t just do digitization of lending without digitizing the infrastructure. What India has done
over the last 15-20 years, is digitising the infrastructure. And that is enabling all these terrific
applications to be built, which makes it easier for people to access services online. So I’m a big

“I am more optimistic today about India as a whole, economically, than I have been for a long
time,” he added.
Banga is the first person of Indian origin to head either the World Bank or the International
Monetary Fund.
“The fact is that the world economy is in a difficult place. It has outperformed what everybody
thought. But it does not mean it won’t be more challenging. The IMF forecast, the World Bank
forecast is that the world will get a little challenging for a year or so but as I said in my speech
this morning, the forecast is not equal to destiny. We can change destiny. And that’s what you
should think about,” he added.
The World Bank President also stated that India has enormous opportunities for financing for
cities. “…Nobody has ever done enough on everything,” Banga added.

Talking about private sector investment, Banga said that there is no easy answer to private sector
capital.
“What I’m trying to do is to set up a private sector investment Lab,” he said.
The Lab is headed by Mark Carney and Shriti Vadera and 15 CEOs have agreed to become a
part of it. The investment lab is co-Chaired by Mark Carney, UN Special Envoy on Climate Action
and Finance and Co-Chair of GFANZ, and Shriti Vadera, Chair of Prudential plc.
The Lab will meet regularly and report directly to Ajay Banga and World Bank Group leadership.
Banga said they will meet every month and “they will give us some ideas to help reduce the
friction for the private sector to invest in the emerging markets