India to set up development finance institution to fund infra projects
NEW DELHI - India's federal cabinet on Tuesday approved a development financial institution to boost investment in infrastructure projects, finance minister said.
"I expect the institution to raise up to 3 trillion rupees ($41.36 billion) in the next few years," Nirmala Sitharaman, India's finance minister told reporters, after a cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
In her annual budget for 2021/22 presented on Feb. 1, Sitharaman had proposed to allocate 200 billion rupees for setting up a development finance institution, with a view to partly fund proposed $1.5 trillion in infrastructure projects over the next few years.
($1 = 72.5350 Indian rupees)
(Reporting by Aftab Ahmed and Manoj Kumar and Louise Heavens)