Progress made so far on the much talked about National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) came in for review at the second meeting of its Governing Council in the capital on Wednesday.
The NIIF Governing Council — headed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley — reviewed the status of actions taken for the operationalisation of this fund.
Discussions revolved among other things on the guidelines for investment in the corpus of NIIF, including the Investment Policy, an official release said.
The Governing Council was apprised of the interactions that have been held with a large number of long-term investors, Sovereign Wealth Funds, Pension Funds from across the globe, seeking to invest in the NIIF.
These include the discussions held during the India Investment Summit held in February this year and during investment meetings led by Finance Minister in Australia, United States and Japan. They were informed of the follow-up action being taken for investments with some of these investors.
The progress of discussions to follow up on the MoUs with several investors such as ADIA from UAE, RUSNANO OJSC from Russia & Qatar Investment Authority, Qatar were also placed before the members, the release added.
Today’s meeting was also attended by Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das, Financial Services Secretary Anjuly Chib Duggal, SBI Chairperson Arundhati Bhattacharya and Manipal Global Education Chairman T V Mohandas Pai.
The Governing Council was also apprised of the status of the various establishment activities of the NIIF since its last meeting held in December 2015.
These included finalisation of office spaces and other compliance activities. It was apprised of the refinement in the Structure of NIIF carried out pursuant to discussions with investors.
The NIIF would have various sector-specific or investor-specific close ended schemes (“funds”) and each fund may issue various classes of units. Government along with other investor(s) would subscribe to the units of various funds. The units, investment strategy and accounts of each fund shall be distinct from and independent of the other funds.
The status of projects shortlisted for initial investment by the NIIF and the selection process of Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of NIIF Ltd were also placed before the council. It was also informed that a core team has been put in place to carry out the activities of the NIIF. The website of the NIIF was also launched by Jaitley on the occasion.