AIIB to invest $200 million into NIIF to boost infrastructure projects

The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) has approved investment of $200 million in India’s National Investment & Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) to give greater impetus to mega infrastructure projects. It will be investing US $100 million now and remaining $100 million in the time to come.

India: largest recipient of AIIB

AIIB so far approved $4.4 billion investments in 25 projects. Of these investments, $1.2 billion have been approved for six infrastructure projects in India, making it largest recipient of funds from the multilateral agency. AIIB is China led multilateral development bank set up in 2016. Its purpose is to provide finance to infrastructure development and regional connectivity projects in Asia-Pacific region. It has 83 member nations. India is second largest shareholder in AIIB after China. It is headquartered in Beijing, China.

National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIFF)

NIIF was set up in December 2015 to catalyse funding into the country’s infrastructure sector. It has been registered with the Securities and Exchange Board of India as a Category II Alternate Investment Fund. It has been set up as a fund of funds structure with aim to generate risk adjusted returns for its investors alongside promoting infrastructure development.
It has targeted corpus of Rs 40,000 crore to be raised over the years — 49% of it will be funded by government at any given point of time. The remaining 51% will be raised from domestic and global investors, including international pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, multilateral/bilateral investors. Its Governing Council is chaired by Finance Minister and has already been set up to act as an advisory council to the NIIF.

Month: Current Affairs - June, 2018