BRICS bank sanctions Rs. 1,666 crore to Canara Bank for energy projects

The New Developed Bank (NDB), formed by BRICS countries Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, on Saturday sanctioned its first set of loans of $811 million (about Rs. 5,405 crore). The sanctioned amount is for renewable energy projects in emerging markets.

Of the sum of money handed out, India's Canara Bank will receive $250 million (about Rs. 1,666 crore) for energy projects. These projects will help to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by four million tonnes in a year, the Hindustan Times reported. 

Canara Bank will receive the first tranche of $75 million (about Rs. 499 crore) for generating 500 MW of additional renewable energy capacity.

"With this we embark on a journey to provide speedy assistance to projects across developing nations. We are pleased that the projects deal with green and renewable energy and hope they will act as catalysts for development in our member states," NDB president KV Kamath was quoted as saying by the publication.

The BRICS bank, with an authorised capital of about $100 billion, started working in 2015 to provide funding for infrastructure projects in emerging markets. As its first sanctioned loan, the bank has disbursed $300 million to Brazil, $250 million to India, $180 million to South Africa and $81 million to China, Press Trust of India reported, citing Russian news agency RIA.

"There are many more projects in the pipeline including projects from Russia. They are various stages of consideration and appraisal," PTI cited the NDB's spokesperson as saying.

[1 lakh = 100,000 | 1 crore = 10 million | 100 crore = 1 billion]