Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services Limited (IL&FS) is planning a $1 billion Environmental Sustainable Infrastructure Fund to be managed by its Private Equity division. The fund is being set up primarily to help small and medium businesses in the Nordic countries with technological capabilities who are interested in projects in India.

"The proposed Fund will also enable Nordic capital to support Nordic business interests in developing efficient and meaningful partnerships with their Indian counterparts and bid successfully for Indian projects sustainable infrastructure services, " said Pradeep Puri, Chief Executive Officer, MET Project, IL&FS. The company is undertaking a road show in Nordic countries including Sweden and Finland to attract potential partners.

IL&FS is also talking to sovereign funds like the Finnish pension fund and export import bands to participate in the new infrastructure fund. This will be in addition to the billion dollar infrastructure development fund which IL&FS has already announced.

According to Paritosh Gupta, Chief Executive, IL&FS Infrastructure Development Corp said that the Nordic region has a strong tradition of innovations in clean-tech and sustainability. "There is an untapped and immense opportunity for such companies to partner with Indian businesses. It is in this context we are launching initiative in India to connect potential clean tech innovations from Nordic region to upcoming Indian opportunities," he said

The fund comes at a time when the new Indian Government has initiated projects such as Smart Cities and Clean India. Foreign direct investment is being seen as a key driver in the evolving strategy.

The Sustainable Innovation Platform will focus on connecting Nordic companies and institutions working on themes such as Energy, water, waste, climate change and related environment sectors with their Indian counterparts.

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