India 2018

Finance 227
climate goals. Provision of finance is embedded in UNFCCC and has also been
mentioned in the Paris Agreement for addressing the adaptation and mitigation
needs of developing countries. The climate actions will have very significant
resource implications especially for a country like India. India's climate actions
have so far been largely financed from domestic resources. India already has
ambitious climate action plans in place. Preliminary domestic requirements to
implement national climate plans add upto more than USD 2.5 trillion between
2015 and 2030. Substantial scaling up of these plans would require greater
resources. Developing countries like India are resource constrained and are
already spending enormous amounts on climate change. Implementing climate
change mitigation and adaptation actions would require domestic and new
and additional funds from developed countries in view of the resource required
and the resource gap.
The Green Climate Fund (GCF) is a multilateral fund created to support
the efforts of developing countries to respond to the challenge of climate change.
GCF launched its initial resource mobilization in 2014, and mobilized resources
worth USD 10.3 billion. So far, 43 projects have been approved by the Board of
the GCF. India also has one project approved by the Board with NABARD on
"Ground water recharge and Solar Micro Irrigation to ensure food security and
enhance resilience in vulnerable tribal areas of Odisha" from 16 th GCF Board
meeting. The project is approved with an outlay of USD 166.29 million including
GCF grant support of USD 34.357 million whereas other financial resources
would be provided by Government of Odisha and World Bank.
Foreign Exchange Reserves
India's foreign exchange reserves comprise foreign currency assets (FCAs), gold,
SDRs and reserve tranche position (RTP) in the IMF. Accretion to foreign
exchange reserves is the outcome of absorption of excess of capital flows balance
over the current account financing needs and valuation gain/loss. In the recent
past, trade deficit witnessed moderation, reflecting the impact of lower crude
oil prices, among others. In the fiscal 2016-17, foreign exchange reserves
remained in the range of US$ 359.0 billion to US$ 372.0 billion. Foreign exchange
reserves stood at US$ 386.5 billion at end of June, 2017, showing an increase of
US$ 16.5 billion over the level of US$ 370.0 billion at end of March 2017.
Country's foreign exchange reserves are at a comfortable position to buffer any
external shocks.
Exchange Rate of Rupee
In the fiscal 2016-17, the average monthly exchange rate of rupee (RBI's reference
rate) was in the range of ` 65-68 per US dollar (` 65.87 per US dollar in March
2017 and ` 68.08 per US dollar in January 2017). The annual average exchange
rate of rupee for 2016-17 was ` 67.07 per US dollar, showing a depreciation of
2.4 per cent over ` 65.46 per US dollar in 2015-16. During 2017-18 (April-August),