Many banks in India are venturing into new areas related broadly to their existing areas of operations. The Export Import Bank of India is one of them. The area it has chosen: venture capital. Later it plans to enter merchant banking and other value added services.

To begin with, Exim Bank will fund information technology and pharmaceutical projects through the venture capital route. It sees these as the only viable investment avenues for the moment.

You may have guessed it -- the focus will be on export-oriented companies. The bank will start with an initial corpus of around Rs.100 crore. It is scouting for a partner among non-banking finance companies.

Exim Bank is also one of the agencies appointed for financing jute and textile companies under the Technology Upgradation Fund. It has also tied up with the Housing Development Finance Corporation for dollar funds which it can use to fund companies that are into project exports.

Other projects and value-added services that Exim Bank provides or are in its pipeline are corporate advisory services, identification of technology suppliers, identification of potential markets, developing joint ventures in India and abroad, and helping companies in the selection of equity partners.

Exim Bank currrently has a slew of lending and service programmess for Indian exporters, banks and overseas companies. For more details click here.

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