Introduction

Introduction
INTRODUCTION
Both the IMF and the World Bank originated in the aftermath of World War II as an outcome of the UN Monitoring and Finance Conference at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire, in July 1944 as part ‘‘of the concerted effort to finance the reconstruction of Europe after the war and also save the world from future economic depression.’’ The real name of the World Bank (IBRD) — The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development — explains its mission. Curiously, Joseph Stiglitz, in his book, Globalization and its Discontent, comments that ‘‘development was added almost as an afterthought.’’ India was among 17 original participants of the 1944 Bretton Woods conference and it was apparently the Indian delegation which suggested the name of IBRD!
We live in a world so rich that global income is more than $31 trillion a year. In this world, the average person in some countries earns more than $40,000 a year. But in this same world, 2.8 billion people—more than half the people in developing countries—live on less than $700 a year. Of these, 1.2 billion earn less than $1 a day. As a result, 33,000 children die every day in developing countries. In these countries, each minute more than one woman dies during childbirth. Poverty keeps more than 100 million children, most of them girls, out of school.