Ibrd Asked To Pick Up Stake In 20 Power Units Projects

India has asked the World Bank to take a small equity stake in about 20 new power projects in the country as a confidence-enhancing measure.

We have asked the World Bank to participate in a very small manner in the power projects, cabinet secretary T S R Subramanian told Business Standard. The Bank is considering the Indian proposal.

The proposal is one of the ways in which the India hopes to jump-start infrastructure investments. The cabinet secretary said other priorities included improvements in banking instruments. We have to develop medium-term financial instruments, said Subramanian, indicating that the Union finance ministeris looking into the issue.

 

Subramanian, who was concluding a 10-day US visit aimed at attracting investments in infrastructure, said the response exceeded expectations. There was a lot of appreciation of the nature of change in India, he said. If we now play it right, we will probably get the investment.

Future steps include ensuring that the reforms percolate to the state level and consolidating change in a number of areas, including the mining and power sectors, he said.

The prospective investors were primarily interested in the key areas of petroleum, power, and the road sector, a comparatively new entrant to the international sector.

The cabinet secretary was accompanied by senior representatives from various infrastructural ministries and the finance ministry. He said his visit was primarily intended to send a clear message to US investors, not present them with a list of projects. Our message was that India is ready for a mature partnership, he said.

Separate sector-level meetings are now being planned to follow up on the new contacts established during the visit.