The German government-owned development bank, KfW has churned its India funding strategy. It is phasing out its commitments for the support of the financial sector in India and shifting its priorities to funding sustainable urban development.
Over the last ten years, KfW had three focus sectors in India: energy, environment and natural resources, and financial systems or sustainable economic development. Last year, there was a shift in focus areas, which will result in an increasing role of sustainable urban development within Indo-German bilateral development cooperation, according to a senior official at KfW. This is in keeping with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's focus on urban development under the Smart City project.
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In the urban development vertical, which is a new focus area for KfW, the commitment so far has been about 700 million euros, made almost exclusively in the past two years.
Under the sustainable urban development, KfW is working on developing climate-friendly urban transport projects and sustainable urban infrastructure. The three partner cities of Germany under the Smart City Project are Kochi, Bhubaneswar and Coimbatore.