The World Bank Creating a Coordinated and Responsive Indian Social Protection System (CCRISP) (P176447) Program Information Document (PID) Appraisal Stage | Date Prepared/Updated: 19-May-2021 | Report No: PIDA31707 Page 1 of 11 The World Bank Creating a Coordinated and Responsive Indian Social Protection System (CCRISP) (P176447) BASIC INFORMATION A. Basic Project Data OPS TABLE Country Project ID Project Name Parent Project ID (if any) Creating a Coordinated and Responsive Indian Social India P176447 Protection System (CCRISP) (P176447) Region Estimated Board Date Practice Area (Lead) Financing Instrument Development Policy SOUTH ASIA 29-Jun-2021 Social Protection & Jobs Financing Borrower(s) Implementing Agency Republic of India DEA, Ministry of Finance Proposed Development Objective(s) The Development Objective of the proposed operation is to strengthen the capability of the state and national governments in India to respond to the needs of informal workers through a resilient and coordinated social protection system. Financing (in US$, Millions) FIN_SUMM_PUB_TBL SUMMARY Total Financing 500.00 DETAILS -NewFin3 Total World Bank Group Financing 500.00 World Bank Lending 500.00 Decision The review did authorize the team to appraise and negotiate Page 2 of 11 The World Bank Creating a Coordinated and Responsive Indian Social Protection System (CCRISP) (P176447) B. Introduction and Context Country Context 1. Anticipating and addressing uncertainty and unexpected shocks is now the new normal in the management of nations and their economies. Whether macro- economic like the financial crisis of 2008, or sectoral as in the case of the current health crisis, or natural disasters like floods and cyclones, such shocks are increasingly determining the trajectory of economic growth and the ability of nations to address poverty and ensure shared prosperity. In this context, building a modern, 21st century social protection system has become essential for protecting citizens, particularly the poor and the vulnerable, and for ensuring a resilient and productive workforce. Even as India has managed historic gains in lowering poverty rates, nearly half the households in India are vulnerable – between the poverty line and twice the poverty line. The challenges faced by women-headed households, adolescents – girls and boys, pensioners, and migrants, further highlights the urgency of addressing vulnerability. Furthermore, 90 percent of the Indian workforce is informal, without access to significant savings or work-place based social protection benefits such as paid sick leave or social insurance. Even among workers in formal employment, over 70% do not have contracts, 54% are not entitled to paid sick leave and 49% are do not have any form of social security benefits. Social protection is therefore more than just protecting the welfare of the poor; it is equally about securing India’s work force. 2. The proposed operation supports India’s efforts to modernize its social protection system to serve new risks and needs emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic, rapid urbanization, structural transformations in the labor market and climate change. It aims to improve coverage and responsiveness of the Indian social protection system for informal workers with emphasis on accelerating portable social assistance and fostering deeper institutional coordination across programs. In May 2020, as part of the initial COVID-19 emergency response, the World Bank supported Government of India through a programmatic series of two operations. Subsequently, this is the first Development Policy Operation of a new programmatic series of two operations (for Fiscal Years 2021 and 2022, with an allocation of US$500 million and US$200 million respectively). The approach is consistent with the recent WBG COVID-19 strategy to ‘build back better’ and the India Country Partnership Framework’s focus on building modern systems of social protection, supporting India to shift away from fragmented schemes, and better helping the poor and vulnerable informal workforce weather future shocks and enhance their resilience. 3. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the structural deficiencies in India’s social protection system, which is fragmented and functions largely through scheme-based silos. Historically, India has provided social protection through a large and complex set of centrally sponsored schemes. These schemes are financed by the Centre and implemented by state governments. They include large-scale community-driven livelihoods programs (National Urban and Rural Livelihoods Mission), Panchayati Raj and self-help group initiatives, financial inclusion programs, safety nets, subsidies, public works, social pensions, quasi-income support and social insurance schemes. In addition, digital innovations for cash delivery and beneficiary identification also function as independent schemes under the purview of discrete line ministries. Ideally, these schemes can serve as building blocks of an integrated system where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. For example, self-help groups can help last-mile delivery of social assistance in concert with technology innovations. However, there is no overarching institutional framework for coordinating these multiple scheme-based mechanisms. Faced with the COVID-19 crisis, the Government of India’s PMGKY has helped build an implementation framework whereby multiple schemes work together through leadership anchored by the Government of India and working in partnership with state governments. 4. The proposed program deepens past WBG support to the Indian government’s agenda to strengthen social Page 3 of 11 The World Bank Creating a Coordinated and Responsive Indian Social Protection System (CCRISP) (P176447) protection for the vulnerable. Building on lessons from PMGKY and the World Bank’s extensive experience with social protection systems internationally and in Indian states, the program bolsters efforts of state and Central governments to : (i) enhance coordination, context-specific delivery and convergence across schemes and ministries by inter-governmental fiscal transfers, benchmarking centrally sponsored schemes and creation of social protection delivery platforms for informal workers and the poor (ii) build a climate responsive and adaptive social protection system through implementation of key 15th Finance Commission reccomendations which enhance and earmark allocations for disaster risk-mitigation and increase weightage given to disaster-risk, forest and ecological concerns in transfers to states (iii) expand the ability of India’s safety nets architecture to become more inclusive by responding to the risks and needs of vulnerable workers in urban areas through new schemes which provide cash, credit and housing support. 5. Even prior to COVID-19, India needed to pivot its social protection system to address the needs of a more urban, mobile and diverse population. The onset of the pandemic has escalated the urgency of this reform agenda. Most social protection schemes operating in modern India are designed for a rural, agrarain and chronically poor country. That India now only exists in pockets – the majority of the country has seen booming tele-digital and transport connectivity, sharp declines in income poverty and new neglected sources of risks related to climate, urbanization and migration. State capability and the delivery landscape are deeply different across regions. With economic growth, states have also diverged in their social protection needs and riks-profiles. India’s response to COVID-19 and future resilience depends on how its social protection system responds to this heterogeneity and context-specificity. The proposed program enables flexibility for state governments to cater to their contexts, while ensuring the needs of migrants, informal workers and the urban poor are addressed. Despite fiscal stress, state governments have proactively expanded support for the poor during the COVID-19 crisis. The proposed reforms will allow states and local governments to access flexible funding to design and implement appropriate social protection responses to COVID-19 and safety nets. 6. The proposed policy program also includes a specific focus on reforms which enable India to strengthen climate resilience of vulnerable populations. This is done through an important social protection reform which allows nearly 40% of resources in state disaster response funds to be deployed as quick cash assistance to communities in disaster- impacted regions to help them cope with loss of livelihoods. Another reform channels additional funds to ecologically precarious zones, thereby making the social protection system more agile and scalable in times of shocks, including future climate-related disasters. Further, a pillar within the program supports broader reforms being implemented by the Indian government to provide additional grants to states based on their performance to tackle pollution and an institutional framework to track India’s progress to achieve its “2˚C compatible� rated Paris Agreement climate action targets1. . While the latter two reforms may not have direct links with social protection efforts, these are important to build environmental resilience and reflects a new approach of the World Bank in India to include climate-sensitive actions in all national level DPOs. Such actions assume significance as India ranks fifth in a recent 2020 Climate Risk Index. The climate-sensitive components of the program are critical given India’s growing vulnerability to climate change shocks. India has suffered economic losses of USD 79.5 billion2 due to climate related disasters in the last 20 years. The proposed reform can help India address the adverse impacts of climate change and natural disasters on individuals and communities, mainly in the form of compensating for the loss of life and livelihood. 7. Although, India has made remarkable progress in reducing absolute poverty, the Covid-19 outbreak has reversed the course of poverty reduction. Between 2011-12 and 2017, India’s poverty rate is estimated to have declined from 22.5 percent to values ranging from 8.1 to 11.3 percent. Recent projections of GDP per capita growth rate indicate that as 1 https://climateactiontracker.org/countries/india/ 2 https://www.undrr.org/publication/economic-losses-poverty-disasters-1998-2017 Page 4 of 11 The World Bank Creating a Coordinated and Responsive Indian Social Protection System (CCRISP) (P176447) result of the pandemic, poverty rates in 2020 have likely reverted to estimated levels in 2016. The extent of vulnerability is reflected in labor market indicators from high frequency surveys. Data from the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE), shows urban households are facing greater vulnerabilities: between September-December 2019 and May-August 2020, the proportion of people working in urban and rural areas has fallen by 4.2 and 3.8 percentage points respectively. In the second wave of the pandemic, unemployment effects are much stronger in urban areas, where the rate has increased by 2.45 percentage points, as compared to an increase of 0.5 percentage points in rural areas over the April-March 2021 period3. While more detailed household survey data is awaited, trends based on the first wave of the infection suggests that an increase in urban unemployment rates will likely have a bigger impact on low-income informal sector workers engaged in causal or temporary self-employed activities. Overall, the pandemic is estimated to have raised urban poverty, creating a set of new poor that are likely to be engaged in non-farm sector and receive at least secondary or tertiary education, as compared to existing poorer households who are predominantly rural with lower levels of education. Data from a private-sector job portal in India shows that employers are posting fewer entry level job and demanding higher educational requirements. New vacancies in female-dominated industries and occupations have also been significantly curtailed. This indicates that the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the economic inequities faced by traditionally vulnerable groups, such as tribal communities, scheduled caste groups and women. 8. India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth has slowed in the past three yearsand thegrowth has moderated from an average of 7.4 percent during FY15/16-FY18/19 to an estimated 4.0 percent in FY19/20. The growth deceleration was due mostly to unresolved domestic issues (impaired balance sheets in the banking and corporate sectors), which were compounded by stress in the non-banking segment of the financial sector, and a marked decline in consumption on the back of weak rural income growth. Against this backdrop, the outbreak of COVID-19 and the public health responses adopted to counter it have significantly altered the growth trajectory of the economy, which is now expected to contract sharply in FY20/21. On the fiscal side, the general government deficit is expected to widen significantly in FY20/21, owing to weak activity and revenues as well as higher spending needs. However, the current account balance is expected to improve in FY20/21, reflecting mostly a sizeable contraction in imports and a large decline in oil prices. Given this, India’s foreign exchange reserves are expected to remain comfortable. 9. Labor market informality further constrains the ability of Indian households to cope and recover from livelihood shocks triggered by COVID-19 lockdowns. The first phase of the lockdown was imposed at a national level and witnessed a common approach adopted nationally. Post-lockdown survey results show that a third of the formal workforce interviewed in December 2019 had lost their jobs by April 2020, compared to 44 percent of the informal workforce. Moreover, 31 percent of those formally employed in December 2019 had slid into informal sector jobs in April 2020. Post-lockdown data from CMIE shows that nearly 17 million women -- four out of ten working women-- have lost jobs, largely in the informal sector. These workers risk falling into poverty due to wage and livelihood losses triggered by shrinking economic activity. However, given the continent-like size and heterogenity in India, these Labor market implications are manifesting differently at the sub-national levels, depending on local economies and socio- demographic profiles. In the second wave of the pandemic there is no national lockdown and State governments have adopted varied strategies to prevent the spread. Overall, the pandemic is estimated to have raised urban poverty, creating a set of ‘new-poor’ that are likely to be engaged in non-farm sectors and who have typically received at least secondary or tertiary education, as compared to existing poorer households who are predominantly rural with lower levels of education. Data from a private-sector job portal in India shows that employers are posting fewer entry level job and demanding higher educational requirements. New vacancies in female-dominated industries and occupations have also been significantly curtailed. This indicates that the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the vulnerabilities for traditionally excluded groups, such as youth and women. 3 Consumer pyramid household survey (CPHS) by Center for Monitoring Indian Economy Page 5 of 11 The World Bank Creating a Coordinated and Responsive Indian Social Protection System (CCRISP) (P176447) 10. India’s social protection architecture stands at an important crossroad, poised to transform from a set of siloed schemes to a more coordinated system. The recent Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana (PMGKY) has been critical in this set-up, mission-mode expansion of coverage will require an overarching body which monitors, strategizes and guides how various innovations, Centre-state agencies, schemes, staff and budgets will be coordinated to ensure adequate social protection coverage for the poor and vulnerable. Meeting the diverse needs of states requires an overhaul in India’s social protection financing and delivery architecture. This is critical to ensure Centre and state consolidate delivery costs, avoid administrative duplication and respond to India’s diverse and changing risk profile. The proposed DPO series focusses on these key structural reforms through four pillars : (i) Fostering deeper institutional coordination across line agencies (data, staff, protocols and funds) for reducing fragmentation. (ii) Expanding the social protection net for underserved urban informal workers (iii) Strengthening delivery of existing new initiatives through focus on improved methods for targeting and payments (iv) Climate action reforms to build mitigation capacities for the most vulnerable. Relationship to CPF 11. The current DPO is consistent with the approach of the India Country Partnership Framework (CPF)4. A key goal of the CPF is to promote human capital investments by strengthening the coverage and coordination of state level social protection delivery systems. The CPF supports the development agenda of India through a balanced focus on what areas of intervention are critical, while also identifying pathways which outline how to engage with the states. This operation supports the CPF focus on strengthening public sector institutions and engaging a Federal India through its emphasis on decentralization. Finally, it supports a cross-cutting theme of the CPF on reducing gender-based inclusion gaps. C. Proposed Development Objective(s) 12. The Development Objective of the proposed operation is to strengthen the capability of the state and national governments in India to respond to the needs of informal workers through a resilient and coordinated social protection system. Key Results • Improved coverage of urban informal workers through new schemes for street-vendors and housing. • Improved coverage of informal workers whose livelihoods are impacted by climate change and disaster risk through greater flexible funds for forested and ecologically precarious zones through reformed funding formulae used by 15th Finance Commission. • Improved targeting and dynamic inclusion through registry and delivery platforms for gig-workers and the poor. • Benchmarking fund flows and impacts of Centrally sponsored schemes through ongoing implementation of expenditure review by Department of Expenditure and Development Monitoring & Evaluation Office (DMEO) NITI Aayog, and streamlining food subsidy bill through the Union Budget of 2021. • Improved delivery of benefits to migrants through new applications to provide information alerts for One Nation- One Ration Card (ONORC). • Improved use of digital transactions by informal workers for cash and social insurance through incentives announced for digital payments through Union Budget 2021. 4 India: FY18-22; Report No. 126667-IN, July 25, 2018 discussed at the Board on September 20, 2018. Page 6 of 11 The World Bank Creating a Coordinated and Responsive Indian Social Protection System (CCRISP) (P176447) D. Project Description 13. Two major issues emerged following the pandemic– first the rural focus of the safety net and the lack of portability of benefits which led to increased suffering for urban and migrant informal workers. Furthermore, the crisis exposed the lack of coordination between programs and between the central government and states. The Government took a series of emergency measures under the PMGKY program which was supported by the earlier DPF series. With the impending poverty impacts of a second wave, and future waves in the country -- the Government now wants to build back better and create an adaptive, decentralized and coordinated and responsive social protection system to meet the evolving needs of the new Indian economy. The role of States will be critical as the need for future lockdowns and economic impacts of containment measures may impact workers differently across locations and states. 14. The proposed DPO supports various aspects of the Government’s social protection efforts. The reform package will support Government of India through four pillars, i) Institutional Coordination, ii) Expanding the Net Urban Informal Workers, iii) Strengthening delivery systems, and iv) Climate Actions. The focus of the reform package is to address problems which have emerged due to a centralized one-size-fits all social protection approach, proliferation of national schemes, the lack of geographic portability of benefits and specific needs to support migrant and urban workers. By supporting this critical government priority, the proposed operation reinforces the GoI’s focus on social protection and strengthens the prospects of results being achieved successfully. Beyond emergency support to households to tackle impacts of future shocks, the focus of the Bank’s policy dialogue builds on the past social protection response to COVID-19 to foster a broader social protection and resilience agenda. 15. As part of Pillar I the operation will support the Government of India’s efforts to i) implement key recommendations pertaining to devolution and disaster responsive safety nets made by the 15th Finance Commission for the period 2021-2026[1], ii) enhance transparency measures whereby financing lines for the largest Indian safety net, the PDS, shall be consolidated and iii) initiate a national review of all Centrally sponsored schemes to benchmark duplication and rationalize based on the fiscal path recommended by the 15th Finance Commission. 16. Pillar II will support the ongoing series of reforms to enhance the responsiveness of India’s social protection systems to urban informal workers, gig-workers and migrants. Under this pillar, the operation will support the roll-out of National Digital Urban Mission[2]. The aim of the mission is to build a ‘shared digital infrastructure’ that will strengthen capacity of the urban digital ecosystem that delivers accessible, inclusive and efficient citizen centric governance. In addition, the program will support in expansion of coverage of beneficiaries’ under the cash transfer and credit scheme (SVANIDHI) for urban street vendors. 17. Pillar III will support reforms to strengthen delivery systems for portable and digital social protection. This includes supporting the government’s plans to incentivize digital financial transactions through a new scheme announced in Budget 2021-22. Further, the operations will support Ministry of Food and Consumer Affairs in the roll-out of a mobile- based application (Mera Ration) for migrants to locate nearest fair price shops. 18. Finally, Pillar IV will help strengthen the creation of a climate response safety nets paradigm by 1) enhanced weightage to ecological/climate-based vulnerability and disaster-risk profile of each state in allocating grants, 2) grants to cities with a population above one million based on achievement of air quality parameters. Additionally, this pillar will also governments efforts in monitoring India’s implementation of its commitments under the Paris Agreement. [1] https://dea.gov.in/sites/default/files/ATR%20Summary%20Annex%20III%20%284%20page%29%20final_0.pdf [2] https://pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=1700246 Page 7 of 11 The World Bank Creating a Coordinated and Responsive Indian Social Protection System (CCRISP) (P176447) E. Implementation Institutional and Implementation Arrangements 19. The DPO will be implemented through Ministry of Finance, Government of India and will leverage existing Union and State government systems. A package of technical assistance will accompany it to help with just-in-time support when needed. There are over 390 Centrally Sponsored Schemes which provide either cash or in-kind benefits. While the policies and guidelines of Centrally sponsored schemes are developed by the Union government, actual implementation (targeting, identification, etc.) is the responsibility of the State governments and Union Territories. There is adequate capacity at the Union government to guide and oversee Program implementation. The Public Financial Management System (PFMS) developed by the GOI is a fund tracking and expenditure filing system that can provide real time status of fund utilization and available funds. There is great heterogeneity in implementation capacities across states in India, and the proposed policy reforms will need to be supported through state level assistance through investment lending and technical assistance. These programs will need to ensure states are supported in designing delivery systems for social assistance, identifying excluded groups and reinforcing linkages between community-based organizations and social protection programs. At the State level, the capacity to implement effectively varies, as there are capacity constraints which includes limitations of banking and financial service providers. To address deeper reforms to improve coordination of finances and institutions, the proposed DPO series will support three critical reforms. a. Scheme rationalization, devolution of funds to state governments and directly to local governments as well, earmarking 40% of state disaster response funds for social protection relief and providing additional weightage to climate risks and disaster profiles of states while estimating central fiscal transfers to states. b. Expenditure transparency measure whereby financing lines for the largest Indian safety net, the PDS, shall be consolidated and made public. This is critical to benchmark social safety nets spending in India. c. National review of all Centrally sponsored schemes with evaluation inputs from the NITI Aayog’s Evaluation Office, to benchmark duplication and rationalize based on recommendations of the 15th Finance Commission fiscal path. F. Poverty and Social Impacts, and Environmental, Forests, and Other Natural Resource Aspects Poverty and Social Impacts 20. The program’s development objective is to strengthen the capability of the state and national governments in India to respond to the needs of informal workers through a resilient and coordinated social protection system . Building from the experiences and lessons learnt from the previous DPF series, this DPF series focuses on important structural changes in the country’s overall social protection delivery architecture. Amongst other measures, it seeks to support the Government’s efforts at greater devolution of funds to state and local government bodies to respond to the ongoing crisis and future shocks; strengthen and streamline centrally sponsored social protection schemes based on evidence from independent evaluations; improve the availability of food and income support for informal workers and migrants; improve urban street vendors’ access to lower cost credit and expand use of digital technology for payments and cash transactions for workers. The program focuses on addressing the needs of the urban poor – mainly informal workers and migrants. The interventions are likely to have largely positive social impacts. However, the long term social and economic impacts of some of the interventions supported by the DPF - viz. the streamlining of existing centrally sponsored social protection schemes, expansion of the SVANIDHI scheme for urban street vendors and digital platforms to deliver benefits – need to be assessed over a longer period of time through focused impact assessment studies. Page 8 of 11 The World Bank Creating a Coordinated and Responsive Indian Social Protection System (CCRISP) (P176447) 21. Gender Based Violence and Exclusion: The proposed program’s focus on directly transferring benefits to women through the PDS aimed at redressing the amplified gender-based vulnerabilities at this time. As per survey data collected between May and August 2020, nearly 72 per cent of women in the bottom 40th wealth quintile with PMJDY bank accounts received a cash transfer benefit. In the same time period, nearly 75 per cent of female-headed households received rice allocations under PDS benefits of PMGKY. Additionally, PDS provides extra food supplies to female-headed families. A large body of evidence5 highlights that providing cash/resources to women enhances their bargaining power, dignity and ability to exit violent households. Also, sociological evidence from India highlights that domestic violence against children/women perpetrated by men often has psycho-social roots in economic distress6. Cash and in-kind transfers are therefore important, not only to improve women’s position, but also to reduce consumption/income stress in the household. Finally, the program will continue to closely monitor data on (i) benefit receipt by gender (ii) violence through administrative data on GBV cases and parallel surveys. However, it should be noted that the ability of surveys to pick up GBV is limited due to reluctance to report by victims. 22. Scheduled Tribes. Tribal groups have the highest poverty rate in India – irrespective of consumption poverty or multi- dimensional poverty indicators. The social protection programs being leveraged for COVID-19 relief give extra weightage to tribal households (due to constitutional protections accorded to these groups) in targeting of benefits. Nearly 94 percent of scheduled tribe households have access to the PDS, 40% of employment days generated through MGNREGS are for SC/ST groups. Approximately 74 percent of scheduled tribe households accessed rice benefits under the PDS component of PMGKY. Similarly, 21 percent of scheduled tribe households were enrolled in the LPG program and 11 percent of these households received benefits during the May to August 2020. Continued monitoring of results and technical assistance at the state level, to ensure tribal communities have adequate access to benefits, will be an important area of engagement going forward. Further, all actions supporting portable benefits for migrants will help tribal communities as they constitute a large section of inter-state migrants in India. Environmental, Forests, and Other Natural Resource Aspects 23. The program will not have any negative impact on the environment, forests and natural resources. Provision of LPG will improve community and environmental health through access to a clean fuel. It will reduce the use of firewood, and its associated indoor pollution and deforestation. As climate projections indicate the worsening of climatic conditions and resulting natural disasters, the program helps activate an adaptive social protection system by enabling use of state disaster response funds to provide fast and flexible cash support to workers and households to address the impacts of disasters triggered by climate change, thereby helping the climate adaptation agenda. The design of the social protection prior actions promotes climate change mitigation, especially through the Climate Pillar in the series. Beyond the climate change elements of the social protection, this DPO also includes a climate change pillar which is now required for all India DPOs. . G. Risks and Mitigation 24. The overall risk rating of the proposed operation is “substantial� on account of dynamic macroeconomic situation due to prevailing COVID-19 pandemic and institutional capacity for implementation and sustainability. Substantial macroeconomic risk is due to depressed revenues and higher expenditure needs in FY20/21 translated into a significant fiscal expansion and increase in public debt. Growth has moderated from an average of 7.4 percent during FY15/16-FY18/19 to an estimated 4.0 percent in FY19/20. There are, however, considerable risks to these projections 5 https://academic.oup.com/wbro/article/33/2/218/5091868 and https://www.ifpri.org/blog/how-economic-security-linked-gender-based- violence-new-insights-sexual-violence-research 6 https://www.icrw.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Domestic-Violence-in-India-4-Men-Masculinity-and-Domestic-Violence-in-India.pdf Page 9 of 11 The World Bank Creating a Coordinated and Responsive Indian Social Protection System (CCRISP) (P176447) amid the resurgence in COVID-19 cases since April 2021. Nonetheless, public debt is sustainable because it is mostly denominated in domestic currency, of long/medium-term maturity, and predominantly held by residents. Moreover, risks are mitigated by the fact that the proposed operation is precisely designed to build back better and will allow the population to not only weather the COVID-19 crisis but also weather future crises – national or localized whether caused by climate change or by other risks. Additionally, the program will address institutional capacity risk through Technical Assistance which will provide support to the design, implementation, and monitoring & evaluation of the Union and State governments. The operation will support a national platform for coordination. In addition, there is uncertainty regarding the extent of the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, and in a pessimistic scenario, the pandemic could destabilize the economy further and lead to increased mortality and morbidity. Nevertheless, despite the risk related to COVID-19, the proposed operation would likely achieve its objectives as it is designed to provide an economic lifeline to the vulnerable. CONTACT POINT World Bank Qaiser M. Khan, Shrayana Bhattacharya Lead Economist Borrower/Client/Recipient Republic of India Mr. Anand Mohan Bajaj Additional Secretary asfm-dea@gov.in Implementing Agencies DEA, Ministry of Finance Hanish Chhabra Director hanish.ias@ias.nic.in FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT The World Bank 1818 H Street, NW Washington, D.C. 20433 Telephone: (202) 473-1000 Web: http://www.worldbank.org/projects Page 10 of 11 The World Bank Creating a Coordinated and Responsive Indian Social Protection System (CCRISP) (P176447) APPROVAL Task Team Leader(s): Qaiser M. Khan, Shrayana Bhattacharya Approved By APPROVALTBL Country Director: Hideki Mori 11-May-2021 Page 11 of 11