CII suggests India Development and Strategic Fund to drive growth and global resilience

CII Proposes India’s Long-Term Growth Fund

The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) on Sunday proposed the creation of an India Development and Strategic Fund (IDSF), a sovereign-backed, professionally managed institution aimed at financing India&rsquo;s long-term growth, resilience, and global economic security.
According to a CII statement, the proposed IDSF would function as a twin-arm national fund, mobilising patient, long-horizon capital to strengthen India&rsquo;s productive capacity at home and safeguard its critical economic interests abroad.
The Developmental Investment Arm would focus on financing long-gestation domestic priorities such as infrastructure, clean energy, logistics, industrial corridors, MSME scale-up, education and skilling, healthcare, and urban infrastructure. 
This arm would provide patient equity and blended finance to commercially viable projects that require long-term commitment, acting as an anchor investor to attract pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, and institutional investors from India and abroad.
CII suggested that India&rsquo;s existing National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) could be evolved into this Developmental Arm, leveraging its established governance structure and global investor network.
The Strategic Investment Arm, on the other hand, would focus on acquiring and securing overseas assets critical to India&rsquo;s long-term economic and security interests, including energy resources, critical minerals like lithium and cobalt, frontier technologies such as semiconductors and AI, and key global logistics assets.
This arm would enable India to &ldquo;own rather than merely buy&rdquo; assets in critical supply chains and emerging technologies shaping the future global economy, the statement said.
With disciplined design and adequate funding, CII estimates the IDSF could build a managed corpus of $1.3&ndash;2.6 trillion by 2047, comparable in scale and ambition to leading sovereign investors worldwide.
The proposed funding model includes an initial budgetary allocation to establish credibility, followed by channeling a portion of asset monetisation proceeds, from roads, ports, spectrum, and transmission lines, into the Fund. 
Over time, select government equity in public sector enterprises could be transferred to the Fund, transforming them into instruments for India&rsquo;s global expansion rather than disinvestment candidates.
The Fund could also issue thematic instruments such as infrastructure, green, and diaspora bonds to mobilise long-term savings and co-invest with multilateral and bilateral partners. 
In the long run, a calibrated share of India&rsquo;s foreign exchange reserves could be deployed for overseas strategic acquisitions in areas such as energy and critical minerals.
CII emphasised that the Fund should remain majority-owned and strategically controlled by the Government of India, while being managed by a professional board combining senior government representation and global investment expertise.
It also recommended that the IDSF publish a periodic &ldquo;IDSF Review&rdquo;, a public dashboard detailing corpus size, portfolio mix, sectoral and geographic exposure, and performance metrics.
CII Director General Chandrajit Banerjee said, &ldquo;The proposal is based on the recognition that India&rsquo;s growth ambitions in infrastructure, energy transition, manufacturing, technology, and human development, will require funding at a scale that cannot be met by annual budgetary allocations alone. The Fund would help mobilise domestic and global savings and recycle national capital from mature assets into new productive capacity.&rdquo;
&mdash;IANS

CII proposes sovereign fund for India’s growth

9 नवंबर 2025 | 15:46 IST

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