BRICS bank to start operations by April: Kamath

The New Development Bank (NDB) - promoted by BRICS nations Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa - is expected to begin operations by April next year, its first president K V Kamath said.

Kamath will assume charge of the multilateral development institution next month at its headquarters in Shanghai, China.

Speaking on the sidelines of CII's National Council in Mumbai on Thursday"I hope to work with BRICS and other member-countries of the NDB over the next few months so as to build project pipelines by April 2016."

Kamath said he was in discussions with the government to ensure that there were some Indian projects in the infrastructure segment that could be funded.

He said the rationale for chnaging the name of the new bank from BRICS Bank to New Development Bank was in anticipation of more countries joining the five-member grouping in the future.

"The reason for not including BRICS in the name of the bank was that new partner countries may eventually join the BRICS group of emerging economies."

Kamath said NDB would be different from other multilateral institutions like the World Bank and Asian Development Bank, as it would have a different mindset required for developing countries and would be more flexible in its operations.

NDB would seek to bring product diversification by introducing new capital market products and would also be open for further equity infusion, said Kamath.

He added currency diversification would be kept in mind while funding, and there would be no pro-rating for funding and assistance would be provided to founding countries as well as member-countries.