This Day That Age (July 30, 2010)

World Bank loan

The World Bank on July 29 gave another loan to India, equivalent to 70 million dollars, for the improvement and expansion of the Indian railways. The loan will cover the greater part of the foreign exchange required for the final year of the railway programme under the Second Five-Year Plan. The Bank's loan is for a term of 20 years and bears interest at 5.75 per cent per annum including the one per cent commission which is allowed to the Bank's special reserve. Six private commercial banks are participating in the loan without the World Bank's guarantee to the extent of 2.5 million dollars representing the first maturity and part of the second which falls due between January 1964 and July 1964. After having been approved by the Bank's Executive Directors, the loan documents were signed by Mr. M.C. Chagla, Indian Ambassador in Washington, on behalf of the Indian Government. The World Bank has now made 24 loans to India totalling $ 662 million.

U.N. Congo plan

Mr. Dag Hammarskjoeld, United Nations Secretary-General, who arrived in Leopoldville on July 28, has drafted an ambitious U.N. Congo plan of partnership which envisages U.N. presence in Leopoldville for at least five years, according to diplomatic and U.N. sources in Leopoldville. The Secretary-General arrived in Leopoldville on July 28 from New York to study the economic and social dilemma of the Congo following the abandonment of virtually all key posts in the country by Belgian advisers and technicians. Unless there is swift U.N. action, the Congo economy is threatened with breakdown, since practically all taxation has ceased.

Citizenship problem

Mrs. Srimava Bandaranaike, Ceylon Prime Minister, declared in Colombo on July 29 that she was confident that the citizenship problem of Indian settlers in the Island would be solved within the term of her Government. In her first interview after assuming office last week, she told the staff correspondent of the

Press Trust of India that she would follow the foreign policy enunciated by her husband the late Prime Minister Bandaranaike.