Sitharaman Attends 114th World Bank Development Committee Meet

The Union Minister for Finance and Corporate Affairs, Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman, joined the 114th Meeting of the Development Committee Plenary in Bangkok, Thailand, on 15 October 2026. She sat at the table as India's Governor of the World Bank. The item before the plenary was Private Capital Mobilisation and Jobs.

India's intervention, in six parts

Delivering the country's statement, the Finance Minister welcomed the committee's sustained attention to drawing in private money and creating work, noting that well paid and productive employment is still the surest route out of poverty at a time of strained energy markets, splintering trade, climate pressure and fast moving technology. Her remarks were organised around six points.

• Jobs need whole ecosystems rather than stand alone schemes: stable macroeconomic conditions, workable infrastructure, plain and predictable rules, and wide reach of finance and skills.
• Private enterprise belongs at the heart of the development agenda, with MSMEs and startups doing much of the hiring; success should be judged by jobs added and productivity gained, not by how much financing was raised.
• Competitive pricing must stay a priority, with local currency lending, better guarantee products and lower transaction costs anchoring the strategy for middle income countries.
• The Knowledge Bank should go after market failures in areas such as urbanisation, tourism, agricultural exports and critical minerals, and give far more room to what artificial intelligence can do for state capacity.
• India repeated its long standing objection to the Worldwide Governance Indicators and similar composite scores, asking for a full review so the methods become transparent, evidence based and fairer to varied development paths.
• Reform must be measured by whether countries end up with more jobs, higher productivity, less poverty and better living standards, and by a stronger voice for developing countries in how the Bank is governed.

On the Bank's own machinery

The minister pressed for closer working between IBRD, IFC and MIGA, and for the World Bank Group's Guarantee Platform to be made operational faster. Developing economies, she said, are held back by a shortage of risk capital, and guarantees and other risk mitigation instruments are among the sharpest tools available for building such capital and pulling private investors in behind it. She closed by saying India's constituency is ready to work with fellow shareholders, Bank management and development partners on these goals.