BRICS
            The BRICS nations or Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa form the five key
      pillars of south-south cooperation and are the representative voice of Emerging Markets and
      Developing Countries in the global forums such as the G20. The New Development Bank,
      established by these nations in 2015, marked its first imprints in India by signing a loan
      agreement for financing of the major district road project in Madhya Pradesh in March 2017.
      India is working closely with the Bank’s management team to develop a robust pipeline of
      projects cutting across areas such as Smart Cities, renewable energy, urban transport, clean coal
      technology, solid waste management and urban water supply. The framework of swap lines,
      conceived as a BRICS Contingent Reserve Arrangement (CRA) with a corpus of US$ 100
      billion, stands operationalised in case any member nation requires short-term liquidity support.
      United Nations Development Programme
            The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is the largest channel for
      development cooperation in the UN . The overall mission of the UNDP is to assist the
      programme countries through capacity development in Sustainable Human Development (SHD)
      with priority on poverty alleviation, gender equity, women empowerment and environmental
      protection. All assistance provided by the UNDP is grant assistance. The UNDP derives its funds
      from voluntary contributions from various donor countries. India’s annual contribution to the
      UNDP has been to the extent of US$ 4.5 million, which is one of the largest from developing
      countries. Over and above its annual contribution, India also pays partly for the expenditure of
      the local office. The country-specific allocation of UNDP resources is made every five years
      under the Country Cooperation Framework (CCF) which usually synchronizes with India’s five-
      year plans.
      Relevant Website: www.undp.org
      South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation
            The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), in existence since 1985
      (founded in Dhaka), is a regional organisation that aims to promote economic, social, cultural,
      technical and scientific cooperation in South Asia. Its member states include Afghanistan,
      Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Maldives, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Its secretariat is based in
      Kathmandu, Nepal. It has crafted several regional conventions, agreements and institutions for
      dealing with issues that affect the citizens of the region. It is a consensus-based forum for the
      exchange of ideas, development of regional programmes and projects. The Framework for
      Currency Swap Arrangement for the SAARC countries was formulated with the intention to
      provide a line of funding for short term foreign exchange requirements or to meet balance of
      payments crises till longer term arrangements are made or the issue is resolved in the short-term
      itself. Under the facility, RBI offers swaps of varying sizes to each SAARC member country
      (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka) depending on their
      two months import requirement and not exceeding US$ 2 billion in total, in USD, Euro or INR.
      So far, the facility has been availed by Bhutan, Sri Lanka and Maldives.
      Relevant Website: www.saarc-sec.org
      SAARC Development Fund (SDF)