India set to fund European bailouts

India is set to fund bailouts in financially-stricken Europe, marking a dramatic role reversal from 20 years ago when it went knocking on the doors of the International Monetary Fund to avert a balance of payments crisis. The government on Tuesday sought parliamentary approval to provide over Rs 9,003 crore (over $2 billion) in loans to the multilateral agency’s New Arrangements to Borrow, a fund whose corpus was raised to over $500 billion in March when the crisis in Europe showed no signs of abating. So, from Greece, which has received $300 billion so far, to Portugal’s $100 billion bailout, India could be playing a part in the international rescue operations. There are already suggestions that more funding would be required from the European Union as well as multilateral bodies.