Govt pushing for more infrastructure play by insurers, pension funds

Government eyes pension and insurance funds to boost infrastructure financing, aiming to unlock long-term capital and sustain investment-led growth

The government is striving to ramp up infrastructure investments from domestic long-term capital sources like pension funds and insurers, and has set up a committee to facilitate smoother deployment of such “patient capital” into large-scale projects, a top finance ministry official said in Washington on Thursday. 

Speaking on the sidelines of the International Monetary Fund (IMF)-World Bank Spring Meetings, at a roundtable meet convened by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the US-India Business Council, Economic Affairs Secretary Anuradha Thakur emphasised the government’s focus on enhancing investor confidence through transparency and visibility of opportunities. 

Structured frameworks such as the National Monetisation Pipeline and the pipeline of public-private partnership (PPP) projects are providing a clear road map for private-sector participation across infrastructure and allied sectors, she noted. At the same time, the government is taking concrete steps to enable long-term domestic capital to participate more actively in infrastructure financing. 

A dedicated panel has been constituted to examine the optimal deployment of insurance and pension funds, with a view to strengthening the availability of patient capital for large-scale projects, she said, according to a CII statement.   

With India permitting 100 per cent foreign direct investment in the insurance sector, Thakur pointed to opportunities in the business, particularly in expanding coverage. Increasing insurance penetration remains a critical priority for the government, from a social protection perspective as well as a driver of financial sector development, she said. 

“India’s insurance sector presents a significant opportunity not only in expanding coverage across underserved segments such as MSMEs (micro, small and medium enterprises), agriculture, and services, but also in mobilising long-term, patient capital. We are actively working to enable insurance and pension funds to play a larger role in financing infrastructure and supporting India’s growth journey,” she noted. 

“Even as we advance reforms across sectors, our focus on the medium- and long-term vision of a developed India by 2047 remains unwavering,” she added, underlining that the country’s economic strategy was focused on enabling sustainable and inclusive growth, while maintaining a predictable and transparent policy environment for investors. 

“India has emerged as a stable, trusted, and fast-growing economic partner, supported by strong macroeconomic fundamentals, policy continuity, and institutional credibility,” she averred. 

Chief Economic Advisor V Anantha Nageswaran said that India’s approach to economic development was increasingly driven by competitiveness, productivity enhancement, and innovation, and pointed to a “renewed push towards trade openness and deeper engagement” with global partners. “India is actively exposing its firms to global competition. That exposure is critical to driving productivity, research, innovation, and global benchmarking,” he said. 

Stressing the importance of reforms and a forward-looking policy framework in shaping India’s long-term trajectory, he said: “India’s response must be resilience, diversification, and sustained reform.”