Finmin reviews working of National Investment and Infrastructure Fund, launches portal

08 June 2016

The second meeting of the Governing Council of the National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) chaired by union finance minister Arun Jaitley today reviewed the status of actions taken for the operationalisation of the NIIF so as to provide a road map for further activities.

The finance minister also successfully launched NIIF website on the occasion. Jaitley, who is also chairman of the governing councuil of NIIF, launched a dedicated website on the occasion.

The members of the Governing Council, including secretary, financial services at the department of economic affairs, Arundhati Bhattacharya and TV Mohandas Pai were a part of the review team that apprised the interactions with a large number of long term investors, sovereign wealth funds and pension funds from across the globe wanting to invest in the NIIF.

Members were informed of the follow-up action being taken for investments with some of these investors. The progress of discussions to follow up on the Mouse with several investors such as ADIA from UAE, RUSNANO OJSC from Russia and Qatar Investment Authority, Qatar were also placed before the members. They also discussed the guidelines for investment of the corpus of NIIF, including the investment policy.

These include discussions held during the India Investment Summit held in February this year and during investment meetings led by finance minister in Australia, United States and Japan.

The status of projects shortlisted for initial investment by the NIIF and the selection process of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of NIIF Ltd were also placed before the council. It was also informed that a core team has been put in place to carry out the activities of the NIIF.

The website of the NIIF was also launched by the Finance Minister on the occasion.

The council was also apprised of the status of the various establishment activities of the NIIF since its last meeting held in December 2015. These inter-alia included finalization of office spaces and other compliance activities. It was also appraised of the refinement in the structure of NIIF carried out pursuant to discussions with investors.

The NIIF would have various sector-specific or investor-specific close ended schemes (funds) and each fund may issue various classes of units. The government along with other investor(s) would subscribe to the units of various funds. The units, investment strategy and accounts of each fund will be distinct from and independent of the other funds.

Meanwhile, the members were informed that Financial Times (London) has adjudged NIIF as the Most Innovative structure in Asia Pacific under finance category.