A $4 Billion Fund Is Clashing With Government. How It's Impacting Decisions
NDTV
Critics inside and outside the government complain that NIIF - which handles about $4.3 billion in assets - lacks vision, decisiveness and the ability to win over investors.
When India launched its first state-backed investment fund in 2015, the project was met with great enthusiasm. Officials hoped to raise billions of dollars to improve the nation's infrastructure and attract foreign manufacturers, angling for the success of funds started in places like Singapore.
But its lofty expectations for the National Investment & Infrastructure Fund are now in question. A chilly relationship has developed between NIIF's team and the government over investment choices, according to interviews with officials and fund managers. Critics inside and outside the government complain that NIIF - which handles about $4.3 billion in assets - lacks vision, decisiveness and the ability to win over investors.
In September, when Sujoy Bose, the fund's first chief executive, informed the board he would step down a few years before the end of his term, many saw the shakeup as evidence of frustration in New Delhi. Just a few days earlier, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, remarked at a business conference that NIIF needed to become more "robust."
"NIIF appears to have fallen between the cracks," said Vinayak Chatterjee, the chairman of CII National Infrastructure Council.
