The government is considering an ‘outcome-linked’ payment package as part of incentives for the recruitment of a chief executive of India’s first sovereign wealth fund, the National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF).
Negotiations on the incentive payment, which will be paid for every $10 billion the fund succeeds in raising, are still on. But an official source said that it could be as high as Rs.10 crore. Another source privy to the details of the negotiations said that efforts are on to have it pegged closer to Rs.2 crore.
Pay package“It has been decided to include an outcomes-linked incentive in the pay package …how much it should be, is being discussed… it can be anything from between Rs.2 crore and Rs.10 crore,” the source said.
The government is expected to announce the appointment of the executive soon. After much delay, the search committee has finalised a candidate, Sujoy Bose, global co-head of infrastructure and natural resources of the International Finance Corporation, from about 70 applicants for the post, the source said.
The Rs.40,000 crore NIIF will act as the nodal agency for the development of greenfield and brownfield infrastructure projects and help revive stalled projects. The Centre will invest Rs 20,000 crore in the fund. The remaining is expected to come from private investors. The government’s share in the corpus will not exceed 49 per cent. Sovereign funds and pension funds from a number of countries, including the U.K., UAE, Russia and Singapore, have already expressed interest in investing in NIIF. India and the UAE signed a pact to mobilise up to $75 billion long-term investment during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit.
Governing councilThe Cabinet had given its approval in July for setting up the fund. The Finance Ministry, in October, constituted a search-cum-selection committee under Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das, for selecting a chief executive. The governing council of the fund, chaired by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, had decided to complete the selection process by January-end. The candidates considered include Thomas Mathew, additional secretary to President Pranab Mukherjee, former Asia CEO of Standard Chartered Jaspal Bindra and IDFC MD Vikram Limaye.
