DEA, MoHUA and World Bank organise a 5-day Cities Creditworthiness Academy Workshop

The workshop was inaugurated by Ajay Seth Secretary, DEA, Manoj Joshi, Secretary, Ministry of Housing Urban Affairs MoHUA Country Director, World Bank WB, India, and over 150 senior officials from the Central Government, State Governments and Municipal Corporations representing urban infrastructure departments.

To create an enabling ecosystem for financing future cities of India, the ministries of finance and housing & urban affairs and the World Bank Group are jointly organising a five-day workshop.

The workshop titled Cities Creditworthiness Academy started on Monday and will conclude on November 18, the Department of Economic Affairs (DEA) said in a statement. The workshop was inaugurated by Ajay Seth Secretary, DEA, Manoj Joshi, Secretary, Ministry of Housing & Urban Affairs (MoHUA); Country Director, World Bank (WB), India, and over 150 senior officials from the Central Government, State Governments and Municipal Corporations representing urban infrastructure departments. While delivering the inaugural address, Seth emphasised on the three binding constraints of urban infrastructure financing in the country, namely Energy, Up-skilling, and Urbanization. Seth also suggested that projects must be financed through a mix of ratepayer-taxpayer model for most efficient utilisation of funds. Finance Secretary and Secretary Expenditure, T V Somanathan touched upon the topic of urban financing as a whole that includes both own revenues as well as borrowing from market. He also emphasised that ULBs need to focus on augmenting their own revenues as a precursor to targeting additional moneys from bond market.