Financing infrastructure

India's infrastructure deficit can be reversed only by development finance institutions that have the domain expertise to both borrow and lend long-term

The National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP) laid out a blueprint for expenditure of Rs 102 trillion over the 2020-25 quinquennium to change the infrastructure landscape in the country. Conspicuously lacking, however, were measures for mobilising funds to finance such a whopping requirement, particularly in the face of the yawning fiscal deficit, the limited lending capacity of banks, an underdeveloped bond market, the current state of the capital market and the week finances of companies. The Union Budget has missed yet another opportunity to comprehensively address issues that are core to infrastructure development in the country.

The NIP has estimated the share