The New Development Bank Quietly Delivers During India’s BRICS Year — SkimNews
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- New Development Bank approved ~$44B in loans across 141 projects by end of June 2026, with ~$25B already disbursed — a payout ratio the article flags as unusually high for a development lender.
- NDB expanded from its five founding BRICS members (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) to ten with the addition of Algeria, Bangladesh, Egypt, the UAE, and Uzbekistan.
- India has received 32 NDB project approvals worth ~$9.5B since 2016, including $500M for the 82-km Delhi-Meerut rapid transit line, recent $300M for REC Limited clean energy, and HUDCO affordable housing backing.
- NDB raised 7 billion Chinese yuan through a Chinese bond sale on September 10, 2026 — separate from its usual member-government funding channels — a move the article notes could concentrate funding ties with China.
- NDB President Dilma Rousseff, the former Brazilian head of state, cited India's Viksit Bharat development plans as a model for other members, while Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman argued development banks should prioritize shared knowledge over loan volumes.
- During India's BRICS chairship, NDB held an August 2026 joint meeting with the Indian government on private capital mobilization and launched a BRICS-NDB knowledge portal on September 10, two days before the New Delhi summit opened.
Why it matters: The NDB's $25B paid out against $44B approved signals real disbursement, not just paper commitments, for Global South borrowers seeking alternatives to Western-led lenders. But the new yuan bond channel deepens reliance on Chinese capital markets — a shift whose durability will be tested when India hosts the NDB's 2027 annual meeting.
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