New Delhi [India], April 28 : As India's infrastructure financing ecosystem enters its next phase of expansion, the harmonised infrastructure framework needs to widen its scope to include emerging sectors such as space, aerospace, and aircraft financing, according to Palash Srivastava, Deputy Managing Director, IIFCL.
"There are sectors like space and aerospace, which actually can be included in the infrastructure sector, while ship financing has been included in the infrastructure space, the aircraft financing has not," he said.
In an interview with ANI, Srivastava added that infrastructure financing continues to outpace overall economic expansion. "If you look at India growing at 6.25 per cent, credit growth over these last few years has been growing at approximately 12-15 per cent. Infrastructure, physical infrastructure in terms of capacity addition is growing at 15 per cent and we are growing at 20-odd per cent," he said.
He also pointed to the central government's dominant role in driving infrastructure financing, with its share rising significantly in recent years. The Centre now accounts for nearly 80 per cent of infrastructure financing, compared to about 60 per cent earlier, while the broader financing system contributes around 20 per cent. States account for approximately 17-18 per cent of total funding.
On financing models, Srivastava highlighted the continued evolution of public-private partnerships (PPPs), with formats such as the Hybrid Annuity Model (HAM) combining government support with private participation.
"India has emerged as a leading global hub for PPPs, with models across road networks, sewage treatment plants and even satellite data acquisition frameworks," he said.
Addressing emerging investment areas, he noted the rising importance of data centres in the infrastructure landscape. "I don't really have a number right now, but I think overall the industry would have financed close to about 8 or 10 data centres, which are close to about maybe Rs 20,000 crore or so," he said.
On risk management and asset quality, Srivastava emphasised the robustness of internal systems. "Internally, we have an elaborate five-step audit processfrom internal audit, concurrent audit to statutory audit and CAG auditwe are basically having a monitoring which is very robust," he said.
He added that stringent project appraisal has supported strong asset quality. "At the moment, if we see A-plus rated assets, they are about 95 per cent or so. Net NPAs are less than 0.3 per cent and gross NPAs are around 0.8 per cent," he said.
Flagging external risks, Srivastava said global disruptions could impact funding flows. "We rely a lot on international markets as far as long-term funds are concerned. In case of a disruption of a global magnitude, we might be affected."
However, he also noted continued global investor interest. "There is a reasonable interest around how IIFCL and India is going to look," he said, adding that around 12 international banks maintain long-term lending relationships.
On structural challenges, he said land acquisition remains a persistent issue. "Land acquisition in a country like India always will remain a challenge."
He added that evolving project models are helping mitigate some of these constraints. "We have been able to address quite a few of these points... and increasingly the new models where the private sector is expected to bring its own land for data centres etc. is an interesting one."
Commenting on the role of states, Srivastava noted fiscal constraints are limiting their participation. "Even the states are coming out with less and less projects because of the FRBM constraints and their inability to provide viability gap funding or hybrid annuity payouts."
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