BRICS New Development Bank (NDB) has offered $250m in loans to the Canara Bank in India to fund the development of renewable energy projects in the country.
According to media sources, NDB has approved projects totalling $811m in India, China, Brazil and South Africa.
The loan in instalments will be used to add nearly 2,370MW of renewable energy capacity throughout the four countries.
The projects were presented at the fifth board of directors’ meeting in Washington.
NDB president KV Kamath was quoted by the South African Government news agency as saying: "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."
The projects in India will generate 500MW of clean energy, reducing 815,000t of greenhouse gas emissions.
According to the news agency, each loan modality is different, based on project specific features and borrower preferences.
NDB is a multilateral development bank operated by the BRICS states including Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa as an alternative to the existing US-dominated World Bank and International Monetary Fund.
Unlike the World Bank, which assigns votes based on capital share, each participant country in the NDB will be assigned one vote and none of the countries will have veto power.
