MoU signed to create Russia-India High Technology Private Equity Fund

India's National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) Ltd today signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Rusnanco OJSC of Russia for setting up a Russia-India High Technology Private Equity Fund for investment in joint implementation projects in India.

The signing of the MoU is a follow-up of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Russia on 23-24 December 2015 and discussions between NIIF and Rusnanco over the past several months. Both sides agreed to cooperate in diverse sectors and facilitate high-technology investments in India.

Both NIIF and Rusnanco have agreed to set up the Russia-India High Technology Private Equity Fund for joint implementation of investments into projects in India:

Both the parties will establish joint working groups with a view to further develop cooperation between the parties and work on the development of the definitive agreements based on the principles outlined in the memorandum.

The National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) has been set up as a Category II alternate investment fund (AIF) under the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) Regulations.

NIIF is financed from the government's own contribution and is expected to have equity participation from both foreign and domestic strategic anchor partners, with the government's share being 49 per cent. The initial authorised corpus of NIIF is Rs40,000 crore, which may be raised from time to time.

The objective of NIIF is to maximise economic impact mainly through infrastructure development in commercially viable projects, both greenfield and brownfield, including stalled projects and other nationally important projects in India.

Rusnanco is a Russian development institute with interest to invest in projects in the field of high technologies and defence, including the projects aimed at establishment of manufacturing industrial enterprises in India.