a)      Mr. R. Gopalan, Secretary, Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance at the Inaugural Session stated that need for sustained push to infrastructure growth, Government is contemplating expanding the role of IIFCL in terms of Take-Out financing and credit enhancement.

b)     Mr. Dr. Rajiv Lall, Chairman CII National Council on Infrastructure mentioned that whereas the savings rate in the economy was not a problem (35% of GDP), the whole procedure needs to be revamped and made more institutionalized to narrow down the growing Asset-Liability mismatch in the economy.

c)      Mr. Sanjay Nayar, CEO & Country Head, KKR India Advisors Pvt. Ltd. stated that the global economy is heading towards capital scarcity. In view of this, greater emphasis should be placed on domestic private capital and consequently, reforms should be introduced in Insurance and Pension funds sector.

d)       Mr. Roberto Zagha, Country Head, World Bank suggested the corrective measures – Undertaking reforms in Public Private Partnership (PPP), exploring the role of Multilateral Funding Agencies, removing regulatory uncertainties & realizing enormous investment opportunities in areas like water and sanitation.

e)      Mr. Vinayak Chatterjee, Chairman CII National Taskforce on Regulatory Framework and Chairman, Feedback Infrastructure Services Pvt. Ltd. stressed upon clarification on the definition of “Infrastructure” in the country as well as an imminent need to re-look at the rating of Infrastructure papers, aiming to devise a robust capital enhancement mechanism.

With Indian economy moving on to a high growth trajectory facilitated by a consistent and steady growth of 8 - 9% in the recent years, there is a critical need to accelerate investments in the infrastructure sector. In fact, infrastructure has emerged as a key driver for sustaining the robust growth of the economy and the government has been focusing on development of infrastructure. Although there has been progress in attracting private investments into infrastructure, Gross Capital Formation (GCF) in infrastructure has hovered around 5 percent  of Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

In the current 5 year plan, from 2007-2012, investment in infrastructure in India is expected to cross US$ 500 billion; almost touching 9 percent of GDP by the terminal year 2012.   A major part of this investment, as high as 36%, would come from private sector.  Going forward, in the next 5 year plan, from 2012-2017, India is planning to up-scale investment in infrastructure to US$ 1 trillion i.e. 9 to 10.7% of the GDP.

To attract investment of such staggering magnitude, India will require a strong and vibrant long term debt market coupled with innovative ways to attract investments from both within India and abroad. 

The conference facilitated an in-depth discussion on some of the key challenges to meet the growing needs of infrastructure financing – Long Term Debt Market, Institutional Framework to upscale PPP, Policy Framework, Regulatory Architecture and Financial Instruments required to up-scale the investment in infrastructure to 1 trillion $.

The Conference had plenary sessions covering:

a)     Creating an Enabling framework for 1 Trillion $ Investment in Next 5 years” -Developers Perspectives

b)    Creating an Enabling framework for 1 Trillion $ Investment in Next 5 years”- Lenders and Investors Perspectives

The well attended conference attracted speakers of National and International repute. Some of the eminent speakers were from IDFC Ltd, World Bank, KKR India Advisors Pvt Ltd, L&T Finance Holdings Ltd, Feedback Infrastructure Services Pvt Ltd, Essar Ports Ltd, DP World, , Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Pvt Ltd, Asian Development Bank Ltd and 3i.

IDFC and L&T Infrastructure Finance Company Ltd were the sponsors of the conference.