INDIA TO SET UP NATIONAL BANK FOR FUNDING INFRASTRUCTURE INVESTMENTS: SITHARAMAN

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday said that India has committed budgetary resources for resilient infrastructure and is in the process of setting up a national bank for funding infrastructure investments.

Participating in a virtual session organised by the Coalition of Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI) in New Delhi, she said creating institutional structures, big thrust on monetising assets and enhancing the share of capital expenditure in central and state budgets were three concrete steps taken by the government for building infrastructure. She lauded the CDRI and its partners across member organisations for organising the International Conference on Disaster Resilient Infrastructure 2021.

“India supports international collaboration on Disaster Resilient Infrastructure,” she said.

Sitharaman said India has adopted a two-pronged strategy and while the International Solar Alliance is in step with the global agenda of climate change mitigation, disaster resilience and adaptation is being addressed through the Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure.

She said India announced National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP) in December 2019 and it is the first-of-its-kind, whole-of-government exercise ever undertaken by the central government.

The session was attended by Ambassador of Japan Satoshi Suzuki, High Commissioner of the UK Alex Ellis, Ambassador of European Union Ugo Astuto and Administrator of USAID Gloria Steele.