PARIS, June 24: Japan and the United Nations today pledged over 1.36 billion US dollars to India as development assistance for 1997 at the ongoing India Development Forum (IDF) meeting here.Japan maintained its position as the largest bilateral donor to India by committing 1.16 billion US dollars (over Rs 4157 crore) as its official development assistance (ODA) package comprising soft loans, grant and technical cooperation.The UN systems in India, comprising 33 of its agencies and programmes in the country, pledged 205.64 million dollars (over Rs 730 crore) to address the issues of poverty reduction and quality of life. The Japanese soft loans, routed through the Overseas Economic Cooperation Fund (OECF), has been offered at a concessional rate of 2.3 per cent and a further concessional rate of 2.1 per cent for environment-related projects.This year's ODA's loan package comprises 10 recipient projects, covering priority areas like power, ports, irrigation and environment apart from development of sericulture and small-scale industry.
