new delhi: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has asked the National Investment and Infrastructure Fund   to explore new opportunities under National Infrastructure Pipeline (NIP), PM GatiShakti and National Infrastructure Corridor. It also includes greenfield and brownfield investment projects.

The National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) should try and crowd in commercial capital into those opportunities, the finance ministry said in a statement on Thursday. Sitharaman while chairing the 5th meeting of the Governing Council (GC) said, the two infrastructure non-banking financial companies (NBFCs), where NIIF has majority stakes, have increased their combined loan book from Rs. 4,200 cr to Rs 26,000 cr in three years without experiencing any non-performing loans (NPLs) till date.

NIIF, India's quasi-sovereign wealth fund, has developed into an internationally credible and commercially viable investment platform, backed by several highly respected global and domestic investors who have invested alongside the central government in NIIF Funds, it said. NIIF's first bilateral fund (an 'India Japan Fund' with contribution from the government) has been proposed through an MoU between National Investment and Infrastructure Fund Limited (NIIFL) and Japan Bank for International Development (JBIC).

The MoU was signed recently on November 9, and this significant update regarding bilateral engagements of NIIF was endorsed by the GC, it said. The GC also guided NIIF to undertake advisory activities pro-actively to support central and state governments to create a pipeline of investible Public-Private Partnershi projects, it said.

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