The asset size of Nabard is expected to cross ₹5-lakh crore during the current financial year and the development financial institution plans to borrow ₹55,000 crore to meet its long-term funding requirements, its Chairman Harsh Kumar Bhanwala said on Friday.

The borrowing from the market will be similar to the last financial year. “We intend to raise about ₹55,000 crore from the domestic market in 2019-20,” he said.

The assets under management stood at ₹4.87-lakh crore by the end of the previous financial year, earning a profit of ₹3,365 crore.

Nabard plans to fund around 100 agricultural and rural start-ups during 2019-20 for which it would infuse around ₹1,000 crore. In April this year, it had floated a separate subsidiary company called Nabventures to finance start-up enterprises.

Nabventures, which has a targeted corpus of ₹500 crore with a greenshoe option of ₹200 crore, closed its first fund closure with an investment of ₹200 crore. Its focussed investment would be in early- to mid-stage start-ups in agriculture, agri-tech, food and rural businesses. A total of 40 deals are planned under Nabventures, Bhanwala said.

Anurag Singh Thakur, Minister of State for Finance, who inaugurated the Nabard Foundation Day seminar, said there is a need for attracting youth to agriculture and for building a technology-driven ecosystem for agri-entrepreneurship. He called for concerted efforts to create a large base of agricultural start-ups.

“India needs to create agripreneurs for which skilling and tech-enabled services are crucial. Agri-based e-commerce platforms, farm monitoring, and linking with fintechs will help make youths become agripreneurs. While the government is supporting the sector significantly, public-private partnership is essential for boosting the agriculture start-up culture in India, which could be a new engine for employment,” Thakur said.

 

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