World Bank to fund Karnataka health project

The World Bank will provide $70 million (Rs.387 crore) loan to finance the Karnataka health systems development and reform project.

"The objective of the loan is to improve the health services delivery, public-private collaboration and financing particularly for the benefit of underserved and vulnerable groups in Karnataka," the bank said in a statement Thursday.

An agreement for the assistance was signed by joint  secretary in the finance ministry Prabodh Saxena, World Bank (India) operations advisor Michael Haney and state project administrator R. Vishal in the national capital Wednesday. The project envisages strengthening of state-run health programmes, innovations in service delivery ad health financing, project management, monitoring and evaluation.

"The project financing will be implemented till March 31, 2016," the statement added.