development of corp bond mkt a top govt priority : Official

The government has accorded top priority to developing a vibrant corporate bond market, a senior official said here today.
"Developing a vibrant corporate bond market is the foremost priority of the Narendra Modi government. Since we don't have enough domestic funds to invest in such a debt instrument, the government is looking at developing a long-term hedging market through alternative investment funds and better bankruptcy laws," Joint Secretary Manoj Joshi of the Union Finance Ministry said here today.
He was speaking at the Sixth Capital Markets Summit organised by the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) here today.
"The government will increase investments in infrastructure and the Budget has enabled private sector to increase infrastructure investments," he said, adding that that there seems to be a definite synching of priorities of both at the regulator's as well as at the government level.

On the country's first International Finance Centre (IFC) in Ahmedabad, Joshi said that the government looks forward to work very closely with the industry to evolve IFC to the best international standards.
Addressing the summit, Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) chief Ashish Kumar Chauhan said that the country would need to raise as much as USD 100 billion in equity capital a year to meet capital requirements for growth.
It is a challenging task since fund raising has fallen far short of this figure in the last five years, he said.
"With the government focusing on encouraging 'Make in India' and pushing for faster infrastructure development, the focus now needs to be on reviving investments to achieve the desired goals," JM Financial Group Chairman Nimesh Kampani said.