Current Affairs For UPSC, Economic Development

Asian Development Bank (ADB) Governors meeting

Asian Development Bank (ADB) Governors meeting

Recently, the annual meeting of the Asian Development Bank has been held. In this meeting, Mrs. NirmalaSitharaman, Governor of India of Asian Development Bank and Governors of Asian Development Bank of other countries came together to discuss the subject of “Cooperation for a Resilient Future”.
India has appreciated the Asian Development Bank for providing timely financial support for COVID and non-COVID related projects.

Key points of the meeting:

At the annual meeting of the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the Indian finance minister said that in the current era of the COVID-19 pandemic, there should be no nationalism on the corona vaccine. He warned the global community that nationalism on the Corona vaccine would take the entire world in a dangerous direction.
In addition, he said, developed countries should share the technology needed to produce the corona vaccine, and ensure the smooth movement of critical equipment and raw materials associated with it.
It may be noted that recently several Indian companies producing Corona vaccine faced problems in the production of the vaccine, as Europe and America banned the export of its raw materials. Such a ban was imposed under the ‘National First Policy’ or ‘Nationalist’ ideology.
At the same time, India also stressed the need to look into trade related aspects (TRIPS) related to the intellectual property rights of the WTO in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Apart from issues related to the Kovid-19 epidemic, he also referred to Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME). The Finance Minister said that MSMEs are the backbone of India’s economy. That is why the Government of India has provided financial assistance in the form of a loan guarantee of Rs 3 lakh to help them during the Kovid-19 epidemic.

Asian Development Bank

It is a regional development bank. It was established on 19 December 1966 to facilitate the economic development of Asian countries. It is headquartered in Manila, Philippines.
ADB currently has 68 members, 49 of whom are from the Asia-Pacific region.
The Asian Development Bank has been set up like the World Bank. In this, the franchise is determined on the basis of the nation’s share in the authorized capital of the bank, similar to the World Bank.
Currently Japan and the United States (the two countries each hold 6% of the total shares), the People’s Republic of China (6.4%), India (6.3%), and Australia (5.8%) are the five biggest shareholders of ADB.

Functions of ADB:

The Asian Development Bank is dedicated to the reduction of poverty through inclusive economic development, environmentally sustainable development and regional integration in Asia and the Pacific.

TRIPS

It is an international agreement for the trade of intellectual property. All countries of the World Trade Organization include this agreement. It is a binding agreement, which came into force from 1 January 1995.

TRIPS include the following seven types of intellectual property rights –