Days after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh announced that India needed $1 trillion for developing the country's infrastructure, the Centre on Thursday announced setting up of a high-level committee on financing of infrastructure.
The committee, to be headed by former Reserve Bank of India Deputy Governor Rakesh Mohan, will submit its report within 18 months, according to an official statement issued here. The committee would suggest steps for improving capital markets for garnering long-term savings and facilitating foreign investment flow.
Dr. Singh, during the recent visit of U.S. President Barak Obama, had sought huge investment by U.S. companies in infrastructure in India and has been pitching for the same during his recent tours abroad.
The panel will assess the investments required to be made by the Central and State governments, public sector undertakings (PSUs) and the private sector in ten major physical infrastructure sector projects. India is aiming to double its investment in infrastructure to about $1 trillion during the XII Plan (2012-17) from an estimated $500 billion in the current Plan. The XII Plan envisages investment of around Rs.41 lakh crore for the infrastructure sector. It is expected that half of the investment target would come from the private sector and the balance from PSUs.
The panel will also identify the regulatory or legal impediments constraining private investment in infrastructure and make specific recommendations to facilitate their removal.
The high-level panel will include secretaries of the Department of Economic Affairs and the Department of Financial Services, Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority Chairman and Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority Chairperson.
Besides, the panel will include the RBI Deputy Governor and chief executives of State Bank of India, Life Insurance Corporation, Power Finance Corporation, ICICI Bank and Infrastructure Development Finance Company.
Other members would include Uday Kotak of Kotak Mahindra Bank, GMR Group Chairman G. M. Rao, GVK Group Managing Director Sanjay Reddy and Goldman Sachs Country Head Madhav Dhar. Railway Board Chairman, Secretary to Chief Economic Advisor in the Ministry of Finance and secretaries in the ministries of power, road transport and highways, urban development, petroleum and natural gas, telecommunications, water resources will be special invitees to the committee.
The convener of the panel will be Gajendra Haldea, Adviser to Planning Commission Deputy Chairman.
