The Asian Development Bank (adb) has decided to double its lending to India by 2008 in the areas of water, transport, energy and urban infrastructure. The amount will go up from us $1.3 billion in 2006 to over us $2.5 billion in 2008.

adb president Haruhiko Kuroda said, "India still needs investments in infrastructure particularly in education. We are looking at doubling our lending to India in the coming years.' Kuroda said the challenges facing Asia include threat to investment on account of regulatory frameworks, policy uncertainty and market distortions.

But Richard Mahapatra, south Asia co-ordinator of Washington-based Bank Information Centre, says since adb does not provide loans at a concession to India the country will have to pay a very high rate of interest.

Meanwhile, the bank is also pursuing a us $1 billion energy initiative to promote clean energy projects.