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Governing Council urges NIIF to boost global presence, adopt new strategy

The Governing Council (GC) on Monday advised the National Investment and Infrastructure Fund Limited (NIIF) to leverage its sovereign-backed design and emphasised the need to professionally showcase its role and performance on the global stage and within the international investor community. 'The team at NIIF was advised to have a proactive approach to fund-raising and the need to explore diversified sources of financing. The GC expressed its confidence in an enhanced role for NIIF going forward and advised that the meeting be held annually,' said the finance ministry statement. Union Minister for Finance and Corporate Affairs, Nirmala Sitharaman, chaired the sixth meeting of the Governing Council (GC) of the National Investment and Infrastructure Fund Limited (NIIF) in New Delhi. The meeting was also attended by Ajay Seth, Finance Secretary and Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs (DEA); M. Nagaraju, Secretary, Department of Financial Services (DFS); Anuradha Thakur, OSD (DEA); C.S. Setty, Chairman, State Bank of India; and Uday Kotak, Founder and Director, Kotak Mahindra Bank. Moreover, the GC took note of progress on NIIF's upcoming Private Markets Fund II, which has a target corpus of $1 billion, and appreciated the fact that PMF II has successfully onboarded private investors — in line with earlier GC guidance — and is set for its first closing shortly. The GC was also informed about the proposed bilateral fund currently under discussion with the United States. Guidance was provided on aspects related to strategy, successful fund-raising, timely operationalisation and effective deployment. The GC appreciated that both the Master Fund and the Private Markets Fund are already 100 per cent committed and that part of the Master Fund's investments has gone into the creation of greenfield assets in areas such as ports and logistics, airports and data centres. The Governing Council appreciated NIIF's evolution as a sovereign-linked asset manager and acknowledged its sustained efforts in building strong partnerships with marquee global investors, including sovereign wealth funds such as the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) and Temasek; pension funds such as AustralianSuper, Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB); multilateral development banks including the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB), Asian Development Bank (ADB) and New Development Bank (NDB); as well as strategic government institutions such as the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC). Recognising NIIF's expanding role in mobilising capital into infrastructure and other priority sectors of the Indian economy, the GC appreciated its performance and took note of the growth in its assets under management, which now exceed Rs 30,000 crore, while catalysing capital of Rs 1,17,000 crore. 'The Council was also briefed on NIIF's overall strategy, sectoral focus, investment progress and future roadmap across its four active funds: the Master Fund for infrastructure, the Private Markets Fund (Fund of Funds), the India-Japan Fund focused on climate and sustainability, and the Strategic Opportunities Fund aimed at growth equity,' said the finance ministry statement.