Thomas Mathew in race for NIIF CEO

The additional secretary to President Pranab Mukherjee is the frontunner to head the nodal agency for development of infrastructure including railways, ports, roads, airports and industrial corridor

TThomas Mathew, additional secretary to President Pranab Mukherjee, has emerged the front-runner for the post of chief executive officer of the country's first sovereign wealth fund - National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF). The government is in the process of finalising the name by early May.

NIIF, which has a corpus of Rs 40,000 crore, will act as a nodal agency for development of infrastructure including railways, ports, roads, airports and industrial corridor. While the government will invest Rs 20,000 crore in NIIF, the remaining amount will come from private investors.

Prior to his stint at the Rashtrapati Bhawan, Mathew was joint secretary, capital markets division, in the finance ministry.

“We have received about 70 applications for the post,” said a government official.

The appointment will be finalised by the search-cum-selection committee formed under the chairmanship of Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das. The fund will be responsible to identify and invest in commercially viable projects.

Jaspal Bindra, former Asia CEO of Standard Chartered, is also among the contenders. He had stepped down from the position last year as part of a broad management shake-up. Vikram Limaye, managing director and CEO of IDFC Ltd, is another applicant.

India and the United Arab Emirates signed a pact to mobilise up to $75 billion long-term investment in NIIF in February during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to that country.

The government has been seeking private, including foreign, investments to fix India’s creaky infrastructure, which would support the country’s Make in India campaign.

NIIF was set up in December 2015 as an investment vehicle for funding commercially viable new, existing and stalled projects. It is expected to be a lean organisation.  India Infrastructure Finance Co has been appointed an investment adviser to NIIF and IDBI Capital Market Services as an adviser to NIIF Trustee Ltd initially for six months and one-year, respectively. The government had significantly liberalised foreign direct investment norms in the construction sector last year.