Pranab elected Chair of ADB Governors Board

"India is very happy to accept the chair," Mukherjee said at the closing business session of the 45th annual meeting of the ADB board of governors here.

Mukherjee said while India was the founding member of the ADB in 1966, its lending operations in India began two decades later. "This 25 years of partnership has been an exciting and challenging journey," he said, adding the he was "honoured".

As a major multilateral lending organization, the Manila- headquartered ADB has 67 members, of which 48 are from Asia. The US and Japan are the largest shareholders of the ban while India is the fifth largest. "ADB`s three-year country operations business plan for India for 2012 -2014 will provide lending assistance of USD 6.25 billion to support inclusive and environmentally sustainable growth," Secretary ADB Robert Dawson told PTI.

The lending support will go to key areas like transport, energy, urban development, agriculture natural resource management, finance and education.