Which one of the following Indian states has signed a $220 million agreement…

The World Bank periodically signs project-specific financing agreements with individual Indian state governments, rather than only with the central government, to fund large, targeted development or disaster-recovery projects. Each such agreement is tied to one specific state, one specific loan amount, and one specific purpose, so identifying the correct state requires matching the exact loan amount and purpose given in the question rather than general knowledge that India works with the World Bank.

The $220 million agreement referred to here is the Bihar Kosi Recovery Project, signed between the Government of Bihar and the World Bank on 12 January 2011. It was created to help rebuild infrastructure and communities in areas devastated by the August 2008 breach of the Kosi river embankment, one of India's worst flood disasters in decades, and to strengthen long-term flood-management capacity in the region.

• Kerala signed the Resilient Kerala Program with the World Bank in 2019, a $250 million loan for climate and disaster resilience -- a different amount and a later year than the $220 million, 2011 Bihar agreement.

• Maharashtra signed a rural drinking-water and sanitation agreement with the World Bank in 2014 worth $165 million -- again a different amount and year from the Bihar agreement.

• Tamil Nadu, jointly with Puducherry, signed a $236 million coastal disaster-risk-reduction agreement with the World Bank in November 2013 -- close to but distinct from the $220 million Bihar figure, and also later than 2011.

Only Bihar's agreement matches both the $220 million loan amount and the pre-2013 timeframe implied by the exam year, confirming Bihar as the correct answer.