Five-year framework aims to support Viksit Bharat
NEW DELHI, January 30, 2026-The World Bank Group (WBG) and the Government of India today announced a new Country Partnership Framework (CPF) to help accelerate India's next phase of growth and support its vision of Viksit Bharat-its ambition to become a developed country by 2047.
"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.
At the heart of the new partnership is private sector-led job creation. With around 12 million young people entering India's labor market each year, unlocking private investment in job-rich sectors is a central priority for the country's next phase of growth.
The World Bank Group's global jobs strategy rests on three pillars: investing in critical infrastructure-both physical and human; strengthening a business-friendly environment through predictable laws, rules, and regulations; and deploying risk-management tools to help private investment scale. This approach focuses on five sectors that generate locally relevant jobs at scale: infrastructure and energy, agribusiness, health care, tourism, and value-added manufacturing.
The new India-World Bank Group strategic partnership applies this global jobs strategy in India and supports it with $8-10 billion in annual financing over the next five years, using the Bank Group's full range of instruments and expertise, to create jobs and mobilize private sector capital at scale.
"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 new strategic partnership is the result of a year-long collaboration between the Government of India and the World Bank Group to rethink how they work together-shifting toward greater selectivity, scale, and impact in support of India's development priorities.
The partnership prioritizes private sector-led job creation by upgrading skills, reducing barriers for small and medium enterprises, and expanding opportunities-particularly for youth and women. It focuses on four strategic outcomes:
- Boosting rural prosperity and resilience. With 60 percent of Indians living in rural areas, the focus is on diversifying incomes beyond agriculture, strengthening value chains and market access, and improving the management of scarce water resources.
- Supporting urban transformation and livable cities. India's urban population is projected to double to 800 million by 2050. Investments in infrastructure, housing, services, innovative financing, and integrated planning can serve as powerful engines of growth.
- Investing in people. Priorities span the full life cycle-from early childhood health and nutrition, to secondary education and market-aligned skills, to smoother school-to-work transitions and more responsive, patient-centered health systems.
- Strengthening energy security, core infrastructure, and resilience. The World Bank Group is helping scale up infrastructure by attracting private capital and capabilities, including in renewable energy, e-mobility, and frontier technologies such as green hydrogen.
Implementation of the new partnership framework will begin immediately, including through ongoing projects, such as:
- Supporting Pradhan Mantri Skilling and Employability Transformation through Upgraded ITIs: An $830 million loan to work with the private sector to upgrade India's network of Industrial Training Institutes and help more than one million young people-especially young women-gain job-ready skills.
- The Maharashtra Project on Resilient Agriculture (Phase II): The $490 million project to enhance crop productivity and strengthen resilience by adopting digital technology in precision farming practices.
- The Kerala Health Systems Improvement Program: The $280 million program will strengthen Kerala's digital health systems through expanded eHealth services, integrated data platforms, and enhanced cybersecurity.
- Credila Financial Services: A $750 million initiative to support higher education financing for up to 190,000 more students to gain job-relevant qualifications and transition from the classroom to the workplace.
- Scaling Electric Mobility: The WBG is accelerating India's electric vehicles 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 Payment Security Mechanism.
This partnership benefits from reforms undertaken by the World Bank Group since 2023 to become faster, simpler, and more impact-oriented-many of which were advanced during India's G20 presidency. It reflects a new country engagement model that emphasizes results, private capital mobilization, and the strategic use of global knowledge alongside public financing.
India is 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. The new partnership will further shift the use of IBRD resources toward leveraging private sector capital, while drawing more fully on the World Bank Group's private sector expertise and instruments.
