Modi to press for equal shareholding in proposed BRICS bank

Fortaleza (

), Jul 14: Prime Minister

will launch his first multilateral engagement in this seaside city of Brazil, meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping ahead of tomorrow's

Summit at which India will press for equal shareholding for its five member countries in the proposed USD 50 billion BRICS Development Bank so that no shareholder dominates.

As the football World Cup fever recedes in this soccer crazy nation, Modi will join Putin, Xi, South African President Jacob Zuma and the host President Dilma Rousseff in deliberations over the proposed bank, international financial architecture and other issues at Fortaleza, one of the host cities of the World Cup which ended yesterday with Germany emerging the world champions.

India is keen on the issue of equal share holding since it does not want a repeat of the distortions that have crept into Bretton Woods institutions like International Monetary Fund, World Bank and the Asian Development Bank in which rich countries like the US and Japan have a strangle hold. Modi will also discuss the possible outcomes of the two- day summit on other issues like reforms of the UN Security Council and international financial architecture.

Sources said India's primary goal is equal shareholding for all the members -- Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. The BRICS Development bank, an idea which was conceived in Delhi in 2012 and approved in Durban last year, is to be set up with an initial corpus of USD 50 billion, with scope for expansion up to USD 100 billion when new members are added.

For the initial USD 50 billion, India wants equal contribution by all the five members of USD 10 billion. This is because India doesn't want the development bank to fall into the ownership pattern of IMF and World Bank, with a distorted share holding. The other priority for India are about the presidency of the bank and the name to be given for it. Apparently, India would like it to be called the New Development Bank, an expression used by Modi in his departure statement yesterday.

PTI